My Master Howard
by CAJeannieFan57
Summary: Bob Newhart Show and I Dream of Jeannie crossover. What would Howard Borden do if he got a genie? Sequel to Double Dad Duty. Complete in 9 chapters.
1. Chapter 1 Dateline 1989

**MY MASTER, HOWARD**

**The Bob Newhart Show/I Dream of Jeannie Crossover Fan Fiction **

**By CAJeannieFan57/Donna**

**CHAPTER 1 – DATELINE, FEBRUARY 1989**

The huge jumbo jetliner carefully left Baghdad airspace, mindful of the unsettled conditions below. Normally, soldiers left commercial airliners alone, but they were always on the watch. Onboard the aircraft were American and Iraqi businessmen, heading for New York City or points beyond in the United States. In the cockpit were two American pilots, and a crew of 6 flight attendants were in the cabins, taking care of the passengers. Though the flight attendants were Americans, two of them spoke Farsi.

One of the shorter Iraqi men stood and went into the overhead compartment above his seat. He needed a large folder from his bag, and removed a small, ornate bottle in order to get to the papers. While working with the papers, he left the bottle out in the corner of the compartment. Returning the papers to the suitcase later, he forgot about the bottle.

The plane arrived safely in New York City. This was its last stop for another week, so the flight attendants did a thorough sweep of all under-seat and overhead storage bins. The usual things were found – sweaters, jackets, a small photo album (with an address inside, which was unusual), small non-airline style pillows, and something very different: a deep red and gold decorative bottle. Maizie, the flight attendant who found the bottle, looked at it curiously. She gathered all the lost and found material together, prepared to deliver it to the company's office, but kept the bottle out so that it wouldn't break.

The 8 crew members left the plane together, but co-pilot Howard Borden and Maizie took up the rear of the group.

"Whew, I'm glad that flight's over, aren't you?" Howard said to Maizie.

"Yes. The pay is nice, when they give us Hazardous Duty Pay, but I'm always glad to get out of Iraqi airspace. Hey, did you see what I found on this plane?" Maizie showed Howard the bottle.

"Wow – may I?" He wanted to see the bottle, so Maizie handed it to him. "Gosh, that's pretty."

"Too bad neither of us can keep it. It has to go to Lost and Found."

Howard sensed that there was something different about this bottle. He wasn't sure what. "This would go really nicely on my coffee table, now that Rhonda's moved out and taken all her stuff with her." Rhonda had lived with Howard, as his girlfriend.

"Captain Borden – you can't keep it. It has to go to Lost and Found," Maizie repeated. They got to the end of the concourse where the security gates were for passengers and crew. "Oh, there's my husband. I'll see you whenever we fly together again, Captain. Make sure that bottle gets to Lost and Found!"

Howard knew it was against company regulations, but decided to keep the bottle for a few days before turning it into the company office. He stashed it in his flight bag and went to catch the shuttle over to the building where he'd catch a flight home to Chicago. He didn't have to work that flight, because he'd already worked his maximum hours for the week.

At his apartment building in Chicago, he looked nostalgically over at Apartment 525. Bob and Emily Hartley had moved away over 10 years before, but Howard still missed them. Emily wrote him letters all the time, but he'd never found such good friends or good neighbors. He had one neighbor that was willing to collect his mail for him while he was out on flight, but it wasn't the same as dropping in on someone just to talk, to ease the loneliness he felt. Howard's son Howie was 25, had married the year before, and didn't tolerate his dad calling him all the time. Howie lived in Minneapolis now, working as a D.J. in a radio station. Whenever Howard's flight schedule took him to Minneapolis, he tried to look up his son.

Inside his own apartment, Howard unpacked his flight bag, throwing his dirty laundry on the floor. When he found the bottle he had stashed inside, he took it out to the living room and placed it on the coffee table. Later, he found himself staring at the bottle, so he picked it up and removed the stopper. First he sniffed at the bottle, and a whiff of women's perfume hit his nose. He tipped the bottle slightly into his hand, thinking it might be a perfume bottle, but nothing came out. Carefully and slowly, he tipped the bottle upside down, but nothing came out. One blue eye peeked cautiously into the bottle, but it couldn't see anything. So the bottle was returned to the coffee table and the cork placed on it.

"Guess I'll just bring it to Lost and Found in three days, when I have to go back to work," Howard said to no one in particular. "But it sure is pretty!"

The bottle sat on the coffee table for those three days, but when Howard went on a one-day round trip flight, down to St Louis and back, the bottle was forgotten and stayed on the table. Howard wasn't fond of flying to St Louis…a city that Bob had once described as "down and to the right". You barely got the plane into the air, when it was time to land. On the ground an hour, change to another plane, and fly back to Chicago: same thing, barely up and it's time to land again. It wasn't so bad if he had a layover there. St Louis had loads of jazz clubs where he could kill time. There was even a jazz club for singles like himself.

Once back at home after the down-and-back flight to St. Louis, Howard sat on the sofa and stared at the bottle again. He'd forgotten to bring it back to Lost and Found, and wondered what type of owner carried this kind of bottle around. Howard picked up the bottle, removed the stopper and laid it on the table, and saw something strange on the side of the bottle – what looked like the remains of a sticker. He rubbed a little at it, to see if he could read it, when a reddish gold smoke emerged from the bottle. The bottle was quickly placed on the table and Howard jumped back onto the sofa as a beautiful young girl emerged from the reddish gold smoke!

The woman was breathtaking, Howard noticed with wide eyes. Dark brunette hair on a tiny lithe body clothed in some sort of red and gold Arabian type outfit, the girl dropped to her knees, bowed to the floor and muttered something totally unintelligible to Howard, then looked up at him with curiosity.

"WHO are YOU!" Howard said.

Once again, the girl said something that Howard couldn't understand, because he didn't know the language. He looked her over in a way that she could understand – curiosity and admiration both.

"I don't know how you just did that, but you just came out of a bottle! But girls don't come out of bottles….do they?" Howard was shocked. He closed his eyes and turned around, but when he turned back and opened his eyes again, the girl was still standing there, hands folded as in prayer, slightly bent over as in bowing to him. Howard got up and started to pace, something he always did when he got nervous.

The girl said something again to him, and gave him a look with her eyes. She was trying to signal to him what he should say to her, but he wasn't getting it. She dropped to her knees and bowed again.

"Girls don't come from bottles. They don't wear – those Arabian things – when they come out of bottles. They aren't supposed to be beautiful knock-em dead women," Howard said as he paced back and forth around his living room, still looking at the young thing on her knees on his floor. "Oh, please get up. I'd like a better look at you than your back and backside," he told her, wondering if she could understand him.

She stayed there, so he assumed she didn't understand. He paced some more.

"WAIT a minute! There was a movie on TV a few nights ago – about this genie – played by Burl Ives – he came out of a LAMP - a real lamp, not one of those silver things like they came out of in cartoons. But he was a GUY, a MAN, not a GIRL! Are you a girl genie?"

There was no response. She did, however, rise from the bowing position and just stayed on her knees, looking at him in wonder. She liked what she saw – a good looking man, older than her previous master, brown hair with a touch of grey and a little bald spot in the back, beautiful blue eyes, probably about 6 feet tall by American measure – but somewhat slow. It had taken him 5 days to get her out of the bottle – how long was it going to take him to figure out the command to make her speak to him in English?

"Okay, genies – that means I get three wishes or something like that, right?" Howard stopped to think, and the young girl smiled. Now he was on the right track. The man paced back and forth – she could see that this man had an incredible amount of energy, which could mean an interesting master. Her last one was SO boring. He wanted her to do everything while he sat around doing nothing except getting fat and doing mathematical equations on his little machine. "Wish….wish….gosh, I wish you'd TALK to me and tell me who you are, what your name is!"

This was close enough. "Thank you, Master. My name is Patna al Basrah, and I am your genie," she said, pronouncing her name Paht-nah in its Mideastern way.

"Oh, good, you speak English," Howard was relieved.

"Technically, Master, you are supposed to wish me to speak your language, whatever it is. However, I knew right away you were an American, and so I could speak your language as soon as you wished me to say anything to you."

"You're a GENIE?" He was still reeling from that information.

"Yes, Master. My bottle now belongs to you, and you shall have anything you wish for," Patna.

"ANYTHING?"

"Within reason, of course. I am not allowed to change the course of human events, so I cannot prevent anyone from dying, nor am I supposed to make someone well who is sick."

Howard suddenly thought of his previous experience with a genie. He remembered that she wore pink, and tried to think of her name. "Oh! Do you know a lady named Jeannie?"

Patna laughed. "Oh, Master, many masters call their genies, 'Genie'. I do not know every genie in the world."

"This lady lives in the United States, and she says she is a genie, but her name is Jeannie. At least – I think that's her name. She lives in Houston, Texas," Howard explained.

"No, Master. I do not know any djinn in the United States. Is this the United States?"

"Yes, you're in my apartment in Chicago, Illinois. And my name is Howard…Howard Borden. You don't have to call me Master."

"Yes, Master, I must. That is my training."

"Training? You have to be trained to be a genie?"

"All djinn – that is the proper term for us – must attend school from the time we are 4 until we are 16. Much of our training is in the use of our powers, but we also have classes in deportment."

"Deportment? Oh, I won't report you to be deported!" Howard was aghast.

She giggled. "Deportment is our manners, Master. I assume that you will enjoy having a genie around so much that you would not wish for me to leave. I am here to serve you as completely as you like." She swallowed. "I must call you Master, as much as I would love to call you Howard. I may provide you with riches, gold, any matter of material goods, and I may run your home and provide you with many servants."

Howard laughed. "There isn't much of my home to run," he said, indicating the small apartment. He took Patna by the hand and the touch brought a physical chemistry between them that made them both gasp and look at each other. "You have such soft hands," he told her, then went back to the matter at hand. "This is the kitchen. Help yourself to whatever is in it. This is the living room. Not much to it, but it's comfortable for me." He brought her into his bedroom, which was a mess. "This is my room. And over there's the bathroom, if you need it." He looked puzzled at her. "You DO need that, don't you? Just how human are you?"

Patna smiled. "Human enough when I am outside my bottle to need things like baths and toilet facilities, Master. But if I am bottled, my spirit does not need such things." She looked around. "Your bedroom is a mess, Master! Allow me, please!" The first demonstration of her magic after smoke-out, therefore, was to blink. She folded her arms very firmly, placed her feet apart for balance, concentrated on something, then blinked very grandly. To Howard's amazement, the clothes placed themselves in the hamper, the magazines and books that were strewn about stacked themselves neatly, a duster dusted off everything, and the vacuum quickly ran about making sure that the almost-threadbare carpeting was at least clean!

"Wow…that's really incredible! Can you – can you..." he wanted to ask her something, but was afraid. One thing he remembered about Jeannie was her way of traveling.

"Can I what, Master?"

"Can you make people travel long distances without using a plane or car?"

"Of course."

"How do I get you to do that?"

"Whatever you wish me to do, Master, you must say, 'I wish' and whatever it is."

"Do I get three wishes?" Howard asked, then realized something. "Oh! I've already used up one!"

"Master, I believe you have seen too many American television stories. I am your genie forever, unless you pass my bottle to someone else. That is how you got me. My former master left my bottle to be passed on, for whatever reasons. I was with him for 6-1/2 years, so I feel it was in error that he left me. But it is too late now, I am yours. But…" she added, "I am grateful that it is you that opened my bottle instead of the woman that found it. I would prefer a male master."

"How – how did you get in that bottle in the first place?" Howard asked.

Patna told the story of how she had been in Asmire's two-year training class in old Baghdad. While in class, she had broken a serious rule twice. The first time, she was found kissing one of Asmire's male assistants. She was 15, he was 24. It is forbidden, she said, for djinn to date until he or she is 16, and they may not date their trainers or assistants. The assistant was fired and bottled for attempting to seduce underage djinn. She was given the first mark against her, which was written in Haji's "To be Bottled" book. Asmire, she explained, was the superintendent of djinn schools, and Haji was the head of all djinn. Howard nodded.

Several months later, before her 16th birthday, she was caught kissing one of her schoolmates in a closet. One of the djinn with spectacular eyesight had seen them and reported them. Both djinn and genie were given a mark against them. This was Patna's second mark.

The end of the djinn training means a week with a training master. Patna disobeyed her master when he commanded her to do something, and summoned Asmire. Asmire ordered her to get in her bottle and brought her to Haji. Haji bottled her for a period of one year, after which he presented the bottle to a deserving businessman in modern Basra. She was his djinn for 6-1/2 years before leaving her in the airliner.

After the information soaked in, Howard looked at his little genie carefully. He could see why the trainer and the young djinn both kissed her, if she was as pretty at 15 as she was now. She was very petite – probably a foot shorter than he – slender, but with larger breasts than normal on such a slender – probably 26" – waist. As Patna walked into the kitchen, Howard took a view of her backside – very lovely, he thought. He tried to do the math in his head, but he was so mixed up, he stopped. "Patna – how old are you?"

"In human years, 24, Master," and she smiled at him.

"Can I call you Patty instead? It's more American - and Irish – I'm part Irish."

"Of course. Or you may call me Genie."

"No. It's better if no one knows what you are, if they think you're my live-in girlfriend. The last time I said something at work about a genie, I got grounded for a month and sent to a psychologist," Howard remembered that experience. Bob Hartley, his psychologist neighbor at the time, didn't believe his story about a genie either, but he certified him for flight anyway.

For the next two days, Patty and Howard got to know each other a little bit. Patty demonstrated her magical skills in several ways. When Howard had to take a flight to Madrid, though, Patty looked very sad.

"May I travel with you, Master?" she asked.

"It would be really hard on you, Patty. You'd be cramped up a lot, and would be a lot happier in my apartment. Besides, I wouldn't have to have anyone pick up my mail. You could do that for me."

"But I love to travel, and my last master used to allow me to travel with him all the time."

In the end, Patty traveled with Howard, leaving her bottle behind. She went miniature and stayed in his jacket pocket almost the entire three days, except when he had a layover in Madrid. She changed into Spanish-looking dress and blended in quite well with the crowd there because of her dark hair.

However, once back in Chicago, Howard was told to report to the airline office dispatcher immediately.

"Sir? You called for me?" Howard asked.

"Borden, you're grounded for four weeks," the dispatcher told him.

"On whose authority?" Howard knew that the dispatcher had no right to ground him.

"Damian's. Every crew has seen you talk to your pocket. When you were in Madrid, in the airport, other crews saw you talking to your pocket. Damian thinks you need a month on the ground to get you settled again. If you're seen talking to your pocket or anything else strange during that four weeks, you won't get back in the air until you've seen a psychiatrist."

Howard gulped. He knew he was talking to Patty, not to his pocket. But after the incident eleven years before, with Jeannie Nelson in the cockpit of his plane, he knew he better not tell them he was talking to a genie! "What will I be doing?"

"Report to this office on Monday," the man said, handing Howard a piece of paper with an address on it. "Wear a suit and tie, pants and sports jacket, or your uniform if you don't have those. You're a desk jockey."

Patty enjoyed having Howard home. Every night she cooked dinner for him – by blink – and asked what he would like in the way of riches. Howard Borden was not very greedy by personality, but chose some smaller things. She discovered that he DID like going out to restaurants, and wanted to be able to send things to his son. She encouraged him to wish things that she could send to Howie's.

After he had been home a few days, Howard debated how to make his next move.


	2. Chapter 2 I'm in Love

**CHAPTER 2 – I'M IN LOVE WITH A WONDERFUL GIRL**

(rated M: Mature: sexual references, language)

Howard sat at the desk at work – he refused to call it "his" desk since he was determined to get back to flight status as soon as possible. He left Patty at home and made her promise not to come and find him at work. After explaining why, she understood and said something like "Tish-ma"-something . Howard looked puzzled, so she explained, "That is Persian for I Promise. I cannot break that promise or it is grounds for bottling me up again." Howard missed her but he didn't want to be seeing a psychiatrist, nor did he want to lose her.

Patty's name was written all over the desk calendar. Like a lovesick schoolboy, Howard had written it there. In a couple of places, he tried "Patna Borden" and "Patty Borden." It would work! But all he could think of at work that day was Patty, and how he felt about her.

He thought about the things that made him fall in love with her. She was always happy, even when he did things that displeased her, and had never expressed a negative word to him even when he deserved it. Patty had a vulnerability to her, though. They both seemed to have a sense of family values, though from what Howard could see, Patty had no family left – she said she had no siblings, her mother had been killed when she was young, and never mentioned her father so Howard assumed he was out of the picture as well. She loved to travel like he did. He suspected that inside that young and feminine exterior was a fiery, sexy woman just waiting to get out.

When he got home that night, Patty noticed Howard's temporary reticence, but misinterpreted it. "Master, are you not feeling well?"

"Huh? Me? Sick? No, I'm fine," he told her.

"Are you sure? Because I am making a traditional Persian dish for you to try for dinner. I could easily switch it to chicken soup, if you are not feeling well."

"I'm okay, Patty." He sat in the living room, staring at her back in the little kitchen. She was wearing her harem outfit, which was fine with him – he loved that outfit, it stood for what she was and was as beautiful as she was. Finally, he stood up and went into the kitchen behind Patty, slid his arms around her waist, and pulled her in close to him.

"Ooh!" Patty was delighted and didn't argue at all. The chemistry between the two was unmistakable. "My master is affectionate?"

Howard leaned down to Patty's face and kissed her cheek. "Yes," was all he said, and kissed her cheek again. "And dinner smells great."

She reeled around and threw her arms around his neck. "Thank you." That was all the invitation Howard needed. He leaned down again and planted a very tender kiss on Patty's lips, short but with feeling. "Mmm," she told him. "I liked that." They kissed again, tasting each others' lips slowly but tentatively.

"Patty – I – I – I'm glad you're here with me," Howard said, breaking off the kiss and from her arms. It wasn't what he wanted to say, but maybe it wasn't time yet.

"Master…" Patty said, "I am glad you are my master, too."

That evening, Howard taught Patty how to play checkers, and she was so good at it that she beat him at most games. It was 11:00 pm when Howard knew he'd better head for bed in order to get up early enough for work the next morning. He kissed Patty goodnight, again very tentatively and cautiously. Her bottle was still on the coffee table, where she retired for the night.

Patty got up and made Howard his breakfast the next morning. She knew she was like his wife in that way, because he told her there wasn't any room for servants in the small apartment. She liked being like his wife, but there were other duties that a wife would provide that she could not. However, she sent him off to work that morning with two things he ordinarily didn't leave with – a goodbye kiss that knocked him for a loop, and a lunch. For the last few days he'd had to buy his lunch and he was tired of the traveling canteen, or "roach coach" as he explained to her. When he came through the apartment door after work, she was there for him again, greeting him with another kiss to equal the morning's. At this rate, he better tell her what he wanted to tell her.

"Patty, I wish we could go to a romantic restaurant," he told her. He was still dressed in pants and sports jacket, and she in her harem outfit.

"Oh – certainly, Master, but I do believe we should be dressed a little differently," and she blinked them into dressy clothes – Howard into a blue Brooks Brothers suit (the likes of which he'd never had) with a starched white shirt and blue silk tie, and herself into a long turquoise, v-necked dress with a tightly cinched waist to emphasize her figure. "Do you not think this is better, Master?"

"Wow, Patty – this is a NICE suit!" He admired the new shoes on his feet, leather Florsheim dress slip-ons. He usually wore either his uniform shoes or sneakers.

"Master – I think you should have an entire new wardrobe. I do like your clothes, but some of them are getting old." She blinked again, and Howard's closet was filled with new clothing, leaving his airline uniforms the same.

"You look beautiful – you should have nice clothes, too," he told her. "Now…I'd like to take you to Cipriani's – it's a favorite Italian restaurant of mine. It's in the south suburbs, though. We could go by Metra."

"Master, it might be faster if I take us there by blink," Patty told him. "You just think of the restaurant, where it is and what it looks like, close your eyes, and I will take us there." Howard remembered doing this to get someplace in Washington, D.C., years ago. He closed his eyes, thought of Cipriani's, and Patty blinked. They landed right in front of the restaurant, surprising people just walking up.

Once inside the restaurant, Howard ordered for both of them since Patty wasn't too familiar with Italian foods. Over salad, they talked, but suddenly, Howard stopped talking.

"What is the matter, Mas- Howard?" Patty asked him, switching in public to his first name as he had wished her to do.

"Patty, I – I…" he knew what he wanted to say, and had something in his pocket, too.

"Do you need courage?"

"Yes," he responded. She blinked as inconspicuously as she could, and he felt a minor jolt. "Patty – I – I've fallen in love with you."

She gulped. At first she said nothing, then looked down at her plate. "Master, if I had known that was what you needed courage to tell me, I would not have given you that blink."

"That's not all, Patty," he went on, ignoring what she was saying. He dug into his pocket and laid a small box on the table. "I'm asking you to marry me."

Patty gasped. "Oh, Mas- Howard, there is nothing I would like better, for I am in love with you, as well," she said. "But..."

"But what?" Howard was about to panic.

"I cannot marry you. You are not a …" she lowered her voice…"djinn."

"So? People mix marriages all the time these days. Why would that be any different?" He opened the box and showed her the ring he had purchased that day for her, on his lunch hour. Patty picked up the entire box to look at the ring wistfully, then reluctantly placed it back on the table.

"The ring is beautiful, Howard, and I would give most anything to be able to wear it. But it is Haji's Law, and I cannot break it again."

"What's Haji's Law?"

"A genie cannot marry a human, no matter how much in love they are. It is especially true that I cannot marry my master."

"So we'll give up the master-thing and I'll just become your husband."

She shook her head. "Howard – I love you – and I would love to do just that – but you must understand – I cannot. I may be bottled again and then you will lose me forever. You must be content to just be my master."

After dinner, Patty blinked them back home. Howard was determined to figure out how to marry her and not get this Haji person involved. The two sat and talked quietly on the sofa, until Howard realized that this was something engrained in all djinn for years and one night was not going to undo it. He decided to be content with things the way they were – for awhile.

"All right, I'll wait. But I'm going to figure out how to get us around Haji, one of these days. You understand?" he asked her.

She smiled, melting at his determination and the love on his face. "Yes, Master, I do understand. I just wish I could change that. But I cannot."

Howard took her in his arms and kissed her, tenderly, on the lips. She reacted as a woman in love, returning the kisses. Gingerly, realizing that he probably did not have an experienced woman in his arms, he opened her mouth and timidly began to explore it with his tongue. Patty had never been kissed like that and at first was surprised, then delighted at how it made her human bones tingle and gave her other unusual sensations. They kissed that way for several minutes before coming up for air. "Patty, I love you," Howard repeated.

"What do you call that kind of kissing?" she asked him, innocently.

He smiled, knowing now she was fresh and ripe. "Well, some people call it open mouth kissing and others call it French kissing."

"Well, I like it. Let us do that some more!" She began to kiss him again, and this time their mouths opened mutually. Howard couldn't stop at just his tongue, however. His hands began to caress her, first her back, then her shoulders, then one hand tentatively slid around and touched her breast lightly. She gasped but didn't say no, so he tenderly fondled it, still outside of her evening dress, as they continued to kiss. Her arms were still around his neck and he wanted her hands to stroke him, but he knew he better take his time with her. The one hand went back to her back, and the other hand came around to caress her other breast, finding the nipple protruding and rubbed it. She gasped again in delight with the way it made her feel. His one hand found the zipper on the back of the dress and began to slide it down. She stopped abruptly and pulled away from him. "No….you must not do that."

"What? I thought you were…"

"Master, I cannot do that. It is against Haji's Law."

Howard huffed and folded his arms. "What's against Haji's Law now? You can't marry a human. Now what are you saying this Haji won't let you do?"

"His law says that I must not allow a man to undress me until we are married."

"Oh, for Pete's sake. I can't marry you and I can hardly show you how much I love you! Just because of some guy named Haji! I'd like to meet this guy and tell him what I think!"

"Master – You must not. You will lose me if you do, for certain. And you have said you do not wish to do that."

Howard stood up, angry. "Goodnight, Patty." He trotted into his bedroom, and closed the door.

Patty stood up. There was a tingling between her legs that she could not stop. It had started there when Howard kissed her with his tongue, and it became stronger when his hands had stroked her breasts, particularly the nipple. She sighed. Asmire's classes had told them about sex with their human forms, but had not told how strong a feeling it could be, and how tempting it would be to break the Law. Patty gathered up all of her strength and smoked into her bottle for the night. It was probably safer that way.

In the bottle, Patty stayed in her miniaturized human form, rather than a spirit form. She sat on the little divan inside the bottle and drew her knees up in contemplation about what just occurred between her and Howard. Oh, she loved the man. She had not realized that she was in love with him until a few days before, when he had come through the door after work with a big smile on his face. He was a big teddy bear, she realized, that needed a nurturing woman by his side. His emotions showed themselves easily and it was all she could do not to take him in her arms and tell him that things would be all right, if he was upset, or hug him with joy when he had a good day in flight. Sometimes his confusion irritated her, but she was willing to put that aside because of everything else he was. Listening to him talk about his son, which was quite often, she knew he loved having a family at one time though he had not made a success of either of his marriages. That bothered him, she knew, and he said if he ever tried again, he wanted to make that one work no matter what. She fell asleep with Howard in her mind – wearing the blue airline uniform that she loved seeing him in.

In the middle of the night, however, Patty realized that she couldn't sleep any more. In her red and gold silk pajamas, she smoked out of the bottle and saw that Howard's bedroom door was open. He was sound asleep, wearing just pajama bottoms, on one side of the double bed. His bed looked so comfortable, she thought, more comfortable than the little divan she had in her bottle for sleeping. Perhaps he would not mind sharing it. She walked into his room, and crawled into the bed next to him. He didn't wake even though she stared at his bare chest a little before falling asleep, her dark head on the other pillow in the bed.

In the wee hours of the morning, though, Howard rolled over, opened his eyes, and noticed that there was someone sleeping in his bed next to him. "Did I get drunk?" he thought to himself. No, he hadn't had anything to drink that night. Looking over, he realized it was Patty in his bed. Aloud, he said, tapping her, "Patty? Is that you, honey?" It was the first time he'd ever called her "honey". She rolled over and faced him.

"Yes, it is me. Your bed looked more comfortable than mine."

He didn't wait. He pulled her towards him in his long arms, caressed her back with his large hands, and kissed her. He was totally aroused by this woman. She responded to his kisses and stroked his back as well – until he reached under her pajama top to gently touch her breast nipple.

"No, you must not do that!" she told him, though it felt SO good.

Howard stopped and sat up angrily. "Then what are you trying to do to me!"

"Nothing, Master, I only wanted to enjoy being with you and sleep next to you."

"Patty – sleeping next to a man is an invitation for what you said is against Haji's Law. I can't be turned on and off like a light switch!"

She got up and folded her arms, preparing to blink. "Very well, Master, I shall go sleep in my own bottle." She blinked and smoked back into her bottle.

While Howard was gone during the day, Patty went to the grocery store with the money he had given her to pick up some necessities. She wasn't used to the American supermarkets, but she could see that this would be something that the women in old Baghdad would desire – everything in one place. She was used to going to the produce market, the dairy, the meat store, a mercantile…or just blinking whatever you needed.

She thought about how she had felt that morning in Howard's bed. She felt wanted, desirable, loved, and enjoyed by her master. She felt that this is what he wished for, and this is what she should be giving him if that is what he wished. And she loved him, desperately. Then what would make it wrong? She didn't know much about it, other than it could make her pregnant. She knew about genie cycles being different from human female cycles, and that Djinn Law also stated that a woman would bear as many children as Allah would choose to send her. Looking at Howard's human age – over 50 – she figured he wouldn't want another child. His son was just a little older than she.

Howard came home, intending to spend the evening in his bedroom with a book he wanted to read. He tried to avoid Patty except when he needed her – and he hated to live that way. Maybe it was going to be necessary to send her away, to give her bottle to someone else. Living with a desirable woman in the same house, platonically, was going to be very tough – almost impossible – now that he was in love with her. It would have been easier if he'd never have fallen in love with this beautiful young thing.

Patty greeted him at the door wearing her harem outfit. He could hardly look at her because of the reaction it would give him – love and lust. "Good afternoon, Master," she said.

"Hi, Patty. I've got a lot of work to do, so I'll be in my room all evening. You can go back in your bottle tonight, don't worry about dinner."

"But, Master…"

"Please, Patty."

"Yes, sir," she said, and smoked into her bottle as Howard went into his bedroom and closed the door. She was so disappointed, but knew that it wasn't something she could help. In her bottle, she thought and debated, and finally came to an idea. She knew how she could get around at least one of Haji's Laws!

Patty smoked out of the bottle wearing the silky red and gold pajamas. Looking at the clock that Howard had in the kitchen, she noticed it was 9:00 pm human time, so in about an hour or two Howard was going to go to bed. He was still in his room with the door closed. Door closures don't mean much to djinn, though, so she blinked into his bedroom.

"Patty! My door was closed!" Howard objected. He was lying on the bed wearing a pair of long pajamas, red plaid, made of cotton. They were a pair she had provided, and he looked very appealing to her, wearing them.

"Yes, Master, I know," she replied and sat on the bed next to him.

"I don't think you should be sitting on my bed next to me if you want to obey Haji's stupid law."

"I know." She thought, smiled, and then said, "Master, what is it you really wish? Right this minute?"

"I WISH you could break Haji's Laws – sleep with me and become my wife, THAT'S what!" Howard said, somewhat grumpily. "Only – not just sleep. I wish you'd let me make love to you."

"Is that what you really wish, Master?"

"That's what I just said, wasn't it?"

Howard had just said the magic words. If Haji found out, all she had to say was that this was one of Master's wishes and she did not wish to disobey him. It was not breaking the main law that djinn could not interfere with human history. "Oh, Master!" Patty threw her arms around Howard. "That is what you needed to say!" She kissed him, and after a slight pause while Howard digested what Patty had just told him, he ravished her with tongue kisses again.

His hands went roaming all over her, on top of her pajamas, as she cuddled close to him. She couldn't believe how good this felt, to be touched all over. His hands explored her neck, her breasts, her stomach, the place where her legs met, her thighs, and even her feet, all over her pajamas. She allowed her own hands to run over his back, his bottom, his chest, and his legs. She'd never felt a human male, and didn't even really know what they looked like under their clothes. "Patty, have you ever been with a man like this?"

"No, Master."

"I'll teach you. I promise I'll be gentle. It will feel so good, but some of it may hurt. That's normal. But I'll make it hurt as little as I can."

"I do not understand how it can hurt when it feels so good right now, what you are doing to me." His hands were exploring her breasts, under her pajamas, and that special place was tingling again.

"You will, you will." Howard had deflowered three girls in his lifetime. Now he was going to deflower a genie. He wondered if it would be different. "Take off my pajama top for me." She went to blink. "No, this is something that I'd like done with your hands. They're so soft." Very slowly, she unbuttoned Howard's pajama top to reveal his slowly graying chest hairs.

"Master…you are beautiful." She ran her fingers through those chest hairs. They were so soft…as soft as she thought they might be, the night before when she had stared at him in his bed.

"In bed, honey, call me Howard."

"No, you are commanding me. This is your wish. I must call you Master." She took his top off and threw it on the floor. She was sitting on his lap and she felt something hard and strange by her bottom, unsure of what it was. Howard unbuttoned her pajama top, removed it from her, and threw it onto the floor, and touched each breast nipple gently. She gasped. "Oh, that feels so wonderful."

"You're beautiful. No, you're gorgeous." Her breasts were perfectly portioned to each other, very full and rounded. The nipples stood out as he stroked them with his fingers, then took one into his mouth.

"Oh my gawd," she gasped again. Her hands were gliding all over his back and chest as he moved from one breast to the other. "This is so incredible! Why is this so wrong in Haji's eyes!" He turned her to face him, moving her legs for her so that she straddled him. The bulge that she had felt before was now even more prominent, and the tingling in her was stronger. As his mouth ravaged her, his hands slid down her back to her bottom, which he'd already decided was perfectly shaped. Now he knew it was the perfect size to fit in his large hands. He kneaded her bottom, causing her to shimmy about a little against his arousal. She was breathing hard. He took his hands away and put them around her ribcage, lifting her up onto her knees so he could pull down her pajama bottoms. As he did so, he realized that she didn't wear any panties, and the view was breathtaking. She stood on the bed long enough for him to take her pajamas off, then sat back down on him, straddled over him. His hand flew around to touch her where her legs met, and gently stroked her. She gasped. "Oh, that is GOOD. Do NOT stop!" He continued to gently stroke her, wanting to give her a sensation that she had probably never felt before in her life. "Yes! Keep going!" She began to bounce on top of him, making him harder than he was before, but he did not stop. He put his mouth back on her left breast, his left hand stroked her right breast, and his right hand stroked her until she screamed with delight and her body pulsated with her first climax. He didn't stop until her body calmed down and she was breathing almost normally again. She fell into his arms. "My goodness, what did I do? What do you call that?" she asked, when she could.

"That, honey, is called an orgasm. Did you like it?"

"I loved it. I would like to do that again, but I believe you were the one that wished for this."

"Contrary to some beliefs, there are wishes that require both parties to enjoy. You needed that experience to make mine even better," Howard said. They kissed passionately, and felt their skin to skin contact, her breasts against his chest. Howard whispered into her ear, "I wish you would remove my pajama bottoms."

"Of course, Master, that is only fair." Patty got off Howard's lap, and kneeled next to him on the bed. As she pulled his pajamas off him, he gazed at her beauty and knew he was going to teach her everything he knew and liked in lovemaking. When his arousal popped up from his bottoms, Patty jumped back. "Oh, my."

"You've never even seen a man naked, have you?"

"No." She looked up at him in his face, down his chest, but her eyes riveted to the part of a man that she had never seen. She so wanted to touch it, but hesitated.

"Go ahead and feel it if you want. A man likes that, as long as you don't pinch too hard."

"But what if I…?"

"I'll let you know if you do. But you won't deflate it by touching it," Howard encouraged her. He couldn't believe his luck – a 24 year old virgin.

Patty tentatively reached out and placed her index finger on it. It was hard! Gradually, she went from stroking him with one finger, to two, to three, until finally she grasped it in her hand. He showed her the movement he liked which when she did it, made him gasp. "Can you do what I did? Orgasm, I mean?" she asked him.

"Yes, but mine is different, and I'd like to do it inside you the first time. Keep doing that," he told her, as he reached towards the bedside table, pulled out the drawer, and grabbed something from it in a little packet.

"What is that, Master?"

"It's called a condom. Some men call it a rubber. It keeps a woman from getting pregnant."

"Master – I am a genie. Will that work on a genie?"

He contemplated that. "You have the same parts as a human, you tell me." She nodded. "Then I don't know why it wouldn't. If I get you pregnant, then Haji is going to HAVE to let you break that law and marry me. I can't wish marriage, can I?"

"No, Master, marriage is a change of human events." She continued to stroke him as he opened the packet, then he showed her how to help him put it on. He pulled her down to lie next to him, and kissed her. "I love kissing you, Master. And I love lying next to you naked like this." They kissed again, her hands exploring some of the rest of him.

"Mmm, I like what you're doing to me Patty, and I'm glad you're liking this, because I do too. This next part is going to hurt a little, only for a little while, but it will hurt. If I could figure out how not to hurt you doing this, I would. I don't want to hurt you, I love you too much."

"Yes, Master. I know you do not have a violent streak in you at all," she reassured him.

He laid her on her back, moved her knees apart with his own as he mounted her. She ran her hands over his chest, loving the feel of his chest hairs in her fingers. His hardness found the warm and very moist place between her legs that it needed, and he gently pushed. Instinctively, her legs tried to close. "No, sweetheart, leave your legs open. It will hurt less if they are open." Her legs opened again. He pushed a little more, feeling the extreme tightness and then the barrier that he knew would probably be there unless genies were different. "Here's the part that's going to hurt. Kiss me." As they kissed, tongues touching and searching, he rocked back and forth a little and broke through the barrier. A cry escaped her. "I'm sorry, honey, that's the worst of it." He pushed in further, confident now that he'd broken the entire hymen. He began to stroke, and the more he did, she began to moan.

"Oh, this feels so good!" she told him, drawing up her knees and meeting his strokes. "Oh, Howard, I love you!"

"I love you so much, Patty. I'm glad you made me wish this. I wanted so much to be able to introduce you to this."

"It is heaven!" She continued to meet his strokes. "Oh, Howard, love me! Love me! Make me do what I did before!" Their strokes became faster and faster, when suddenly, Patty burst forth with another climax and let out a "YES! YES! YES! IT IS GOOD!" As her pulses came, Howard followed with one of his own and some loud groans.

"Oh, Patty, that was wonderful!" Howard told her. "I love you."

"I want to do that all the time!"

Howard smiled and laughed a little, rolling them both onto their sides so he wouldn't leave her. "I think we'd get tired. Well….I would. I'm older than you." She looked disappointed. "But we can do that a LOT…as often as you want to, and I can keep up."

From then on, they lived as man and wife. Howard taught her much about life as a wife, but also as a lover. She smoked him into her bottle one time when there were salesmen on the apartment floor and they didn't want to be disturbed. It almost gave him claustrophobia until he forgot about it when she took him onto her divan.

Howard introduced Patty as his wife to most people. His work questioned it, but kept him on observation and a desk job, hoping that marriage would settle him down.


	3. Chapter 3 Breaking the Law is Hard to Do

**CHAPTER 3 – BREAKING THE LAW IS HARD TO DO**

One day, about two months after Patty's arrival and a month of them living as man and wife, Howard got a phone call. He immediately invited the Healeys over for dinner, belatedly checking with Patty to make sure that was acceptable to her. He warned her that she would not be able to blink in front of them or in any way let them know she was a genie. They lived in Houston, but were in Chicago on business.

The secret didn't last long. Roger Healey had been around genies for 24 years. His best friend, who happened to be his wife's brother, was married to one. Roger had been introduced to almost all of Jeannie's brothers and sisters, her mother and father, Haji, and Asmire. He had been sent everywhere from the South Pole, to the top of the Empire State Building's antenna, to the jungles of Africa, by an angry genie. Tracy, Roger's wife, had been around them about 17 years, but was more observant. It was Tracy that figured out that Patty was a genie and that Howard was hiding it.

"If you need to blink, Patty, just do it. We're both used to genies."

Howard and Patty both turned in surprise to Tracy. "What?" Howard said. "How did you know?"

Roger responded, "She's from that part of the world, and there's a decorative bottle on your dresser – Tracy peeked and saw it."

"Howard, do you remember, about 11 years ago, you met Jeannie and Tony Nelson of Houston, while they were looking for Roger?" Tracy added.

He nodded, hesitatingly. "Yes…."

"Don't you think we know that Jeannie's a genie? And we've known for years?"

During the rest of the evening, Howard and Patty found out that Haji's Laws were more flexible than he had ever indicated. Jeannie was a genie, Tony was human, and they had indeed married and had children. Jeannie's younger sister Kashi had also married her master. Another genie that Jeannie knew had married her Canadian master. Howard asked Patty to go to Houston and talk to Jeannie. Later, in bed, he commanded her to do it within the next two weeks. He would have vacation in about two months, and he wanted to spend it on a honeymoon.

Patty had to blink to Roger's office to find Jeannie. The dark-headed genie couldn't get over how much Roger and Howard looked alike. She had mixed them up more than once herself, until she figured out that Howard's hair was longer than Roger's because Roger had to have a military haircut. As a result, Roger's bald spot was more obvious than Howard's.

Roger felt the change in the air when Patty blinked into his office, and turned around. "Jean- OH! Hi, Patty! What are you doing here?" He noticed she was wearing her harem outfit and silently appreciated the view.

Patty went up to him to greet him with a hug, but Roger stepped back. "Good afternoon, Colonel Healey. My master has sent me to speak with Jeannie. It is so good to see you!" She tried to hug him again.

Roger dodged Patty. "Don't do that. If my wife or Jeannie caught you and me hugging, I'd be sent on a one-way blink to the North Pole." He found her tempting, and told himself that he didn't want to do that to Tracy or ruin a friendship with Borden.

"But it is just a friendly hug!" Patty objected.

"Take my word for it. I've been in genie trouble before, and would like to stay warm, please. You need Jeannie? What for?"

Patty backed off, reluctantly. Roger reminded her so much of her master and all she wanted was a hug. But she replied, "He wishes me to get information on approaching Haji about getting married."

Roger grinned. "I'd love to see another genie marry her master. You know about it all yet?"

"No, that is what I need to find out from Jeannie. How would I find her?"

He looked up into the air and called out, "Jeannie! Jeannie!" Patty was surprised that a non-master had calling ability for another man's genie.

Very shortly, a very pretty 18 year old blond girl, dressed in modern clothing, blinked into Roger's office.

"Janae!" Roger exclaimed, surprised to see his niece instead of the older woman he was expecting when he hollered. "What are you doing here?"

"You called? Mom was in the middle of something and couldn't leave. She asked me to come."

"Aren't you supposed to be in school?"

"I don't have a 6th period class this semester, so I'm done for the day. What do you need?"

Patty spoke up, calling attention to herself. "Are you Jeannie?" she asked.

Janae turned to see the woman standing there in harem outfit. "Uncle Roger! I didn't know you had another student genie!" To Patty she said, "No, I'm not Jeannie. I'm her daughter."

"Janae – this is Patty – she's Howard Borden's genie, in Chicago. Patty, this is Janae Nelson – and she's Jeannie's 18 year old daughter."

Janae turned to Patty and smiled. "I didn't know Mr. Borden had a genie. Mom will love to know there's another genie in the U.S."

"I have been his genie for 3 months. He found my bottle in one of his planes," Patty explained, relieved to be able to talk about this to someone again. "I would like to speak with your mother, at my master's request."

The younger genie motioned to the older one and said, "Well, I'll take you to her. Uncle Roger, drop in later. Mom and Dad want to show you their new sofa. Bring Aunt Tracy with you." She blinked, and the two genies left Roger's office almost as quickly as they'd come in. Roger reluctantly went back to work – two genies in his office and he blew it again! He could have had his office redecorated in about two wishes, if he'd worked it right.

At the Nelson house, Jeannie told Patty exactly what she needed to do, and what Howard would be required to do. She gave Patty a hug and said, "I do hope you know what you are doing."

"But, Jeannie…"

"You are so young, and you are marrying a man old enough to be your father."

Patty nodded. "I know. I am a year younger than Howard's son. His son's wife and I are the same age."

"And Howard has been married twice before," Jeannie reminded her. "It is not as bad as Colonel Healey, who has been married 6 times now, but it is still a lot."

"He loves me, Jeannie. And I love him, very much. I never have felt for a man like this one."

"Have you had instruction on what is expected in marriage? Do you have a mother to tell you?"

Patty shook her head. "My mother has been dead for many years, a very serious accident when she was in service to a sultan." Jeannie gasped. "But I believe I know what is expected. Howard has taught me."

"But, Patna, there are other things that Howard could not have taught you already – it is against Djinn Law…"

"I will learn," Patty said. Jeannie sat her down and explained the birds and the bees to her. Patty didn't let on just how much of the sex portion she already knew, but when Jeannie got to the prevention of children when it came to a human male and a djinn female, Patty really listened. When she left Houston to return to Chicago, she knew which methods did and did not work for this combination, a little about what to expect if she became pregnant, and what to say/not to say when applying for the marriage to Haji.

Patty was waiting at home for Howard that night when he came from work. She was wearing a beautiful red silk robe with gold trim, which Tracy had given her, and greeted him with a loving and sexual kiss. Howard took Patty straight to bed before dinner that night. After she climaxed twice, she told him, "Howard – yes – I will marry you." He gave her the ring that he had tried to give her that night at the restaurant.

The second-to-last obstacle was Howard's son. Howie lived in Minneapolis and didn't come to Chicago very often. Howard 's first flight after being returned to flight status was to Minneapolis, so Patty rode in her bottle in his suitcase. Neither of them wanted to risk him being grounded again, and he felt that he couldn't talk to her in his suitcase. At first he was concerned that she'd die if she couldn't breathe, but she dispelled that myth and assured him that spirits don't need oxygen.

Howard had arranged for an overnight layover in Minneapolis, so they went to Howie and Barbara's for dinner that night.

"Hi, Patty, I'm glad to meet you," Howie politely said. "This is my wife, Barbara."

"Barbara, Howie, I am very pleased to meet you both," Patty said, trying not to bow as her djinn training would command.

Barbara had noticed Patty's young age. "Patty, forgive me, but how old ARE you?"

"I am 24, Barbara." Howard had insisted that she not call them Mr. and Mrs. Borden as her deportment class taught.

"You're MY age! And you're living with my father in law!"

"Yes," Patty said, smiling up lovingly at Howard. "He is a wonderful man. We are going to be married soon."

"But…." Barbara was flabbergasted. To Howie, she whispered, "I can't imagine marrying somebody my dad's age."

"Me either, but she seems to love him, and look at the way Dad looks at her!"

"Yeah….in lust."

"That's Dad," Howie stated. "I've seen him in love and I've seen him in lust. He looks the same. Besides….she's gorgeous."

"Yeah. I wonder how many men she slept with before she found your father."

Patty overheard part of the conversation, and indignantly answered, "I have never slept with a man until your father-in-law, Barbara...as if it is any of your business anyway."

"I'm just trying to prevent Howard Senior from making any stupid mistakes."

Howard came up behind Patty and grabbed her from behind, sliding his arms around her in a big spooning hug. "This isn't a mistake. None of my marriages have been mistakes. They just didn't last as long as I'd originally hoped. And one of them gave me this one," he pointed at Howie. Howard looked at Barbara and said, "Without my first wife, you wouldn't have Howie. Who knows, Howie, maybe you'll get a little brother or sister eventually." He rubbed Patty's abdomen, hopefully.

"DAD! I don't want a sibling now! I'm already going to be a …" Howie stopped when he got a "look" from Barbara.

Patty caught on and grinned at Barbara. Howard didn't catch the slip. "Are you?" Patty asked, smiling excitedly at Barbara.

"All right, Howie, go ahead and spill it. Patty's already figured it out," Barbara smiled back.

"Dad….you're going to be a grandpa," Howie told him. "So don't get any ideas about being a dad again at the same time!"

Howard froze. "A grandpa? When? Does your mother know yet?"

"No, we haven't told anybody yet. Barbara just found out three days ago. Now that you know, I'll tell Mom. I don't think she's in any hurry to become a grandma." He added, "Oh, we're due just before Thanksgiving."

Howard was practically dancing around, and pulled Patty with him. "Grandpa! I'm going to be a grandpa! You're going to be a step-grandma!"

"Mas- HOWARD!" Patty changed mid-sentence.

Howard and Patty stayed at a hotel that night, compliments of his airline as it usually was when he had an overnight layover. Though her bottle was in his suitcase, she slept in her usual place, with him in his bed. "I want you pregnant as soon as we get married," he told her, slightly jealous that it was his daughter-in-law pregnant and not his wife-to-be.

"Master! You are 52! By the time the baby is 18, you will be over 70 years old!"

"So? I know how to deal with teenagers, I've got experience! And we'll still be young enough to raise one! Just one!" But he used a condom that night. He forgot one, but Patty knew what they were now, and blinked one up.

The final obstacle was Haji. In accordance with the djinn protocol, Patna sent a request for an audience with Haji via scroll. Howard had never seen this and was astonished to see it leave his apartment and then the return answer. They were requested to come "right away." Patty blinked into her harem outfit, blinked Howard into his airline uniform (which she thought would impress Haji), and then blinked them over to Haji's Castle.

Invited into Haji's Chambers, Patna immediately dropped to her knees and bowed grandly to Haji. Howard stood there and watched, wondering what he should do.

"Rise, Genie Patna," Haji commanded. "You have requested audience with me?"

"Yes, sir. I would like to introduce-"

Haji noticed Howard standing there, and immediately said, "Colonel Healey! What are you doing with my genie Patna?"

"But I'm not-"

"Have you not been in enough genie trouble and it caused one of your divorces?" Haji went on.

"But I'm not-"

"Sir, please," Patty politely interrupted. "This is my master, Howard Borden. It is not Colonel Roger Healey."

It was Haji's turn to object. "But-"

"I know they look alike, sir. But I have met Colonel Healey. He and my master look very much alike, but they do not act anything alike," Patty explained. Howard smiled at her proudly.

Haji turned to Howard. "You are not Colonel Healey?"

"No, I'm Howard Borden," he explained. "I live in Chicago. Healey lives in Houston. We're often mixed up by people who know us both."

Haji nodded, satisfied, and turned back to Patty. "What do you wish, Genie of Borden?"

"Sir, I am told that I must make a verbal or written request of you to be married," she explained.

"Married? To whom? Where is your intended?"

"To Master Borden, your Excellency," Patty said, proudly bowing a little, then taking Howard's arm. He looked down at her with love that even Haji couldn't miss.

"MARRIAGE! To a human! It is not DONE!" Haji exclaimed. "NO!"

"But sir…" Patty knew if she didn't rush on, Haji would banish her and that would be the end of it. "There are already three marriages between genies and their male masters. I have met one of them already. It is she that gave me instructions." No one noticed that one of Haji's assistants left the room quickly by blinking out.

"There is one MAJOR difference between you and all the other three genies who have married their masters, Genie of Borden." Haji stopped and waited for Patty to give him her attention. "Age." Haji turned to Howard. "Master Borden, how many human years are you?"

Howard didn't know what he was asking, until Patty nudged him and whispered, "Tell him how old you are."

Howard nodded. "Fifty-two, sir."

Haji went on. "Your genie is less than half of your human years. In the other three marriages, my genie was OLDER than her human master by many years…more than 2000 years in Jeannie's case, and about 2000 years in Tarania's case." Patty was impressed at Haji's memory. "The answer is no, based on your ages."

"What if we marry without your permission?" Patty defiantly asked.

"Then you will be turned into a full human and you will die as a human would – of old age or illness!" Haji was angry. Howard gasped. He loved his woman and didn't want to change her, though he would still marry her as a human.

There was a knock on the door, and one of Haji's assistants answered it. At the door were Jeannie and Tony Nelson, both decked out in djinn clothes. The assistant who had blinked out followed them in.

"Jeannie Nelson! Master Nelson! What are you doing in my chambers when I am in a chamber session?" Haji was angry again.

"Salaam, Haji," Jeannie bowed, and Tony followed with a slight bow from the waist. Howard looked at him, puzzled.

"Rise, Jeannie," Haji softened and asked her, "Why you are here?"

"We were summoned by one of your assistants, sir, who said that you were forbidding a marriage between a genie and her human master, after I had advised her," Jeannie explained.

"I said NO because of their age differences," Haji stated.

Tony started to laugh, almost uncontrollably. "Age differences! AGE differences! Haji, no disrespect intended, but there are over 2000 years between Jeannie and I. I think an age difference of 28 years might be….more acceptable, wouldn't you think?"

"If the genie was older, yes, I would agree with you," Haji stated.

Howard finally spoke up, having lost some of his fear of Haji. Tony felt for him, knowing what Howard was going through, a little bit. "Haji, may I say something?"

"Oh, I suppose. Why not!"

Howard pulled Patty in towards him. "Patty has explained to me the genie life cycle, the type of life she has had and what she expects from a life as a human wife. I understand it, I'm willing to learn, and what's most important – I love this woman with my life. I want to make her mine, and not just as my genie – as part of me." Patty was about to melt right there on Howard's feet, and Jeannie's eyes filled with tears. Tony was moved, as well.

Haji stared at all four of them, then looked at his two assistants, who both shrugged. "Very well, on one stipulation."

"Anything, Haji," Patty said.

"Patna will be bottled, beginning today, for a period of one year. Master Borden, she will be here in my quarters in her bottle, but you will not be allowed to see her. You will be observed. If, at the end of one year, you have been completely faithful to her, and you still wish to marry each other, I will not stand in your way."

Patty gasped, and whispered, "No! Not that!"

Tony spoke up, in Howard's defense. If this had been him, he thought, he'd want to know if he was free to date or if he had to remain a recluse. "Define faithful, please, Haji."

"Faithful: you are not lying with any other woman. You are free to date, but if you choose to lay with another, you will not be permitted to marry Patna," Haji defined.

"How about kissing?" Tony was pushing it, defending his human friend.

"Any form of physical pleasure is considered lying with a woman in the djinn world, Master Nelson, Master Borden." Tony coughed in shock. He'd never heard that before, and he and Jeannie kissed all the time before they were engaged – both times!

Howard looked at Tony, then back at Haji. "I will be faithful. I feel married to Patty – Patna – now, in many ways. But I will miss her." Howard turned to Patty, tears already forming in his eyes, taking her hands in his. She too was fighting back tears. Sometimes Haji required challenges, and this would be one of them. Howard hesitated to say something else to Haji, but Tony did it for him.

"Haji – I believe they need time alone together before she goes into her bottle for a year. I know I would, if this was Jeannie," Tony requested.

"Very well." Haji, the Nelsons, and Haji's two assistants left the room.

Howard whispered to Patty, "I can't believe I just agreed to that. Do you know how much torture this is going to be?" He pulled her into his arms and held her close.

"The same for me, sweetheart. You will have your work, and your friends. The time will go fast for you," Patty spoke positively.

"But you'll be all alone, in your bottle."

"Before I smoke in, I will bring some things in there with me. I have done this before." Patty blinked and her bottle came in, and things started to smoke themselves inside it. "But I will not have you, and you are what I will miss the most."

"Patty, I love you. I'll wait for you. I'll be counting the days," Howard said.

"And I love you. One thing I just smoked in there was a small human calendar. I too shall count the days."

Howard leaned down and kissed Patty, his mouth opening out of habit.

"No, not here. Haji will know." They had to be content to kiss with lips only. They were in a tight embrace when the group of five came back in. "I love you," Patty whispered again. "Always remember that."

"I love you."

"Patna … smoke in," Haji decreed. With a last hug and a kiss on his cheek, Patty left Howard's arms, gathered her wits about her, and smoked into her bottle. Haji put the stopper on it. Jeannie was crying and not hiding it, Tony looked like he was ready to cry, and Howard's eyes were full of tears as he watched Haji place the red-and-gold bottle on one of his shelves. Haji looked at Jeannie. "Will you please take him home? And in one year, if he still wishes to marry her, you may bring him back."

"Of course, Haji. Come, Howard, let us go. Do you have to work today or tomorrow?" Jeannie asked. Howard, still choked up with grief over his lost fiancé, shook his head. "Then you are coming to Houston. You will stay with us, not the Healeys. They have gone to Pennsylvania for a funeral." She blinked, and the three left for Houston.


	4. Chapter 4 The Longest Year Howard

**CHAPTER 4 – THE LONGEST YEAR: HOWARD**

The Nelsons blinked back to Houston with Howard, who was beside himself with grief. It was as though someone very close to him had died. Tony sat up with him quite a bit that night, just listening to Howard talk about his time with Patty, how much he loved her and wanted to make a life with her, how he had just introduced her to his son whose wife was going to make him a grandpa in about 5 months, and that he didn't know what he was going to do without her.

The Nelson teenagers, Janae and T.J., took turns coming in to say goodnight to their father, both surprised that Mr. Borden was staying with them instead of the Healeys until T.J. remembered that Uncle Roger was attending his aunt Sue's funeral.

When he was sure that ears were not listening, Tony spoke to Howard about something that had been on his mind since they had come from Haji's Chambers. "Howard, I believe I know why this might have happened."

"Why?"

"I'm going to ask you a very personal question, and it's something you don't have to answer to me, but you'll want to answer it yourself."

"What?"

"Did you, by any chance, take Patty to bed with you since you've had her?" Tony was blunt, and from something Roger had said weeks before, he suspected that the couple had done just that. Howard looked at the floor, so Tony continued. "Djinn Law forbids djinn to do that before marriage. If you did, and Haji found out about it, his usual response is to put at least one in the bottle."

Howard looked up at Tony and nodded. "But I put it in the form of a wish!"

Tony smiled slightly. "It still doesn't make it right, in Haji's eyes. Who figured out how to do it that way?" He didn't figure it was Howard.

"Patty. She wanted it as bad as I did. And we'd already decided to get married." That was mostly true.

"You're lucky, then, that he only decided to bottle her for a year. I know one who's still bottled, and that was over 14 years ago." Tony didn't divulge any other information, or how he knew. "You are welcome to spend as much time down here in Houston as you like, getting used to the ways of genies. Jeannie can blink you back and forth or you can just fly in with your own airline."

Howard looked up at Tony again. "You all have been good friends. I really appreciate it. I haven't had such good friends since the Hartleys left."

"Did you want to talk to Dr Hartley too?"

"Next time I fly into Portland. But he wouldn't understand about the genie thing. You do."

Janae asked her mother, the next day, why Mr. Borden seemed so sad. She learned that he'd had a genie for a few months, but that genie had been bottled. "What rule did she break, Mom!"

Jeannie told her, "Haji is making them think before marriage, because he is so much older than she is." She paused, and then added, "Be aware of that, Daughter."

Janae was totally in awe. She had never heard of Haji doing that.

Back in Chicago, when Howard went back into work, he hadn't bounced back yet. He was still depressed, and remained that way for weeks. Frank Damian, his boss, called him into his office after some flights where everyone complained about Howard.

"Borden, what's going on? I've never had any complaints about you snapping at your fellow crew members until these last few days. EVERYONE has complained about you!"

Howard didn't answer right away. He was trying to think about how to phrase this. He had gone around introducing Patty as his wife, and now she was gone. "I'm sorry."

"You seem really down. Something on your mind? Family troubles? Fight with your wife?" Damian decided to take it from another angle, and struck a raw nerve.

"No – I lost her. I might get her back, but I lost her."

"Her? Who? Your wife?"

Howard nodded. "Patty's gone."

"Well … as a general once told me, all's fair in love and war. If you think you've lost someone, and you still love her, GO and GET her. I can give you time off if you need it."

"No, sir, it won't help. She's where I can't get to her. There's a – a – a family member who's interfering between us. I have to fight him."

Damian understood. "I said, if you need time off, call me or come see me. In the meantime, go home, get some sleep, and maybe you need to go talk to a counselor or a really good friend." He dismissed Howard, who went home to his apartment.

His apartment was depressing. He'd lived there with his second wife and, later, a live-in girlfriend, and it was never as depressing after they left as it was this time, without Patty. Everywhere he went in the apartment, he found traces of her or something she'd changed that reminded him of her. The hardest was the bedroom. He found himself sleeping out on the sofa for awhile, because all he could think of in the bedroom was the sweet love that they had made in there.

It was easier to take the maximum number of flight hours that he could take every week, and even spent some time working in the airline office when they were shorthanded during a flu outbreak. There was comfort in working long and hard hours. Several times, he accepted the offer of a blink down to Houston. He stayed with the Nelsons, because they were a happy and noisy family, and to make sure he didn't forget the ways of the djinn. Janae and T.J. were happy to have a guest that they didn't have to hide their powers from. Roger and his daughter Skylar would often come over and visit, but Howard noticed that Tracy would usually stay away. Tony questioned it and Roger just answered, "She's not comfortable having two of us around that look alike."

"Jeannie, is there any way I can communicate with Patty? I really want to tell her I still love her, that I'm still waiting for her," Howard asked her privately one time, about three months after Patty was bottled.

"No, I am sorry but I do not believe there is. I cannot get into Haji's Chambers, because there is a barrier placed on it. A few years back, Haji and Asmire both found that someone had blinked into their records rooms and taken some information, so they placed barriers on their chambers and their records rooms." Jeannie did not know that the "someone" was her own daughter, searching for information for her training master.

It was Veterans Day, in November, and Howard was in flight, going from Chicago to Anchorage, Alaska, when an exciting call came from a relay tower.

"Con-Air Flight 537 from Chicago to Anchorage."

"This is Con-Air Flight 537."

"Captain Borden, are you there?"

"I'm here."

"Congratulations, Grandpa. It's a boy." The voice in the tower sounded excited to be able to relay that kind of a message.

"A boy! A boy! I have a grandson?" Howard was elated. "What's his name? When was he born? How big is he?"

The other voice, a male, chuckled. "Sorry, Grandpa, we didn't get all that information. We barely heard 'Borden' and 'it's a boy'. Call home when you get to Anchorage."

Howard was in a hurry to get off the plane in Anchorage, and the flight attendants all understood and were laughing. "Grandpa isn't acting like a grandpa. He's acting more like a father!" they joked. He got off the plane and found a pay phone in the area, to call Howie.

"Yeah, Dad. My son was born at 4 this morning, he was 7 lbs. 4 oz., and he's healthy," Howie told him.

"What's his name! Doesn't he have one?"

Howie laughed. "Oh, sorry. Nicholas Howard Borden. I wasn't too thrilled about the middle name, but I wanted Nicholas and Barbara thought we should keep the name Howard in the family."

"I'll try to get a flight in to Minneapolis as soon as I can, son. I want to see my grandson!"

It wasn't long before Howard got that flight. He switched with another co-pilot who wanted a long run instead of a short run. Then he went again at Thanksgiving, which was held at Barbara's parents' home in St. Paul. Holding Howie's baby son, his grandson, brought back memories of Howie as a baby. Now, more than ever, he wanted Patty out of that bottle and was determined to get her pregnant the day they got married.

A big djinn party was being held in old Baghdad on the 10th of December, to celebrate the 200th wedding anniversary of a djinn couple. Tony and Jeannie were invited, as were Kashi and Mark. Janae and T.J. babysat in Houston for Kashi and Mark's 8 year old son Robert. Jeannie called Howard and invited him, to Tony's surprise.

"Jeannie, he's human. He can't go."

"Excuse me? You are human, and you are going!" Jeannie retorted, with a look of defiance on her face.

"But I have you. Howard's genie is bottled and there's no guarantee he will get her back, ever."

"Haji promised one year if he keeps himself clean. From all indications, Howard has not so much as looked at another woman. You heard that he was in trouble at work a few weeks ago for refusing to talk to the flight attendants that had spoken to him. He is fearful that Haji will not accept that," Jeannie defended Howard. "He needs to see what he is getting himself into, while he still has time. If Patna was here and they were not yet married, she would be introducing him to these functions, as I did for you."

Howard happened to be free that night, and went along. Jeannie had to come up with a djinn outfit for him. She chose one in a deep maroon, feeling that it would be close to Patty's red and gold without clashing with it when the time came. "I have to wear this?" Howard objected a little.

Tony was sympathetic. "Get used to it, if you want to be married to a genie. You'll blend in a little more if you look like one, even with no powers. Try to stick close to Jeannie or her sister Kashi, though. It's better to be near friendly powers if something breaks out."

The party was held in the building next to Haji's Castle. Howard recognized his surroundings and looked longingly at the Castle. After being there a couple of hours, Howard went to Jeannie with a whispered request, "Jeannie, is there a way you can get me into Haji's Chambers?"

"Why?"

"I just want to see Patty's bottle, to make sure it's still there and that he hasn't done anything else to her." It was an honest concern. Patty had been bottled a little over 6 months by then.

Jeannie looked around sneakily. "I do not know. We can only try. But there is a barrier on the room, so it is probably not possible." She pulled Tony in towards her and hung onto his arm, and then took Howard's arm in the same manner, as she blinked.

The three landed in the Castle just outside of Haji's Chambers. Lo and behold, there was no one about and the door to the Chambers was wide open. However, a guard came into the hall and saw the three, just as they were going to enter the Chambers.

"HALT! Who goes there!" stated the guard.

Jeannie answered. "Please, sir, is it possible to look into Haji's Chambers for just a short period of time?"

"That is normally forbidden. Why?" the guard admired Jeannie's beauty and wholesome good looks.

"This is Master Borden. His djinni fiancé is bottled in there. He just wishes to make sure that Haji has not removed her," Jeannie explained.

The guard softened completely. "Let us not tell Haji. But he did the same thing to my girl once. It helps to know if she is safe."

The four entered the chambers and Howard looked up at the shelf where Haji had placed the bottle. It was still there, but had gained a lot of dust. Howard looked at the guard, who nodded, and Howard brought it down.

"Just do not open it. Talk to her, but do not open it," the guard said. To Tony and Jeannie, he said, "He probably wants privacy. I will stay in the doorway and you go out in the hallway." Tony and Jeannie went out.

Howard looked at the bottle, then took his fingers and dusted it off. The dust didn't come off easily, so he took a piece of his djinn outfit and wiped it on the bottle. "Patty? Can you hear me, sweetheart? If you can, tap on the side twice."

There were two responding taps. Howard smiled and the guard was thrilled to help.

"Sweetheart, it's me, Howard. Howard Borden. Honey, I've missed you a lot. Knock twice if you still miss me."

There were two responding knocks, and Howard smiled again.

"I wish I could get you out of there, sweetheart. You need to see your new …" he stopped to rephrase this, "you need to see my new grandson. His name is Nicholas - Nicholas Howard Borden, and he looks just like my son. Knock if you heard me!"

There was a loud resounding knock.

"I'm here at a party for some 200th wedding anniversary. I just can't wait for us to have a party for our wedding, and a 1st anniversary would be nice too." There were several knocks on the side of the bottle, as if Patty were totally in agreement with Howard. "Tony and Jeannie have been really good friends. I wouldn't be here without Jeannie." He stopped to think, but the guard interrupted.

"Borden – someone is coming. Say goodbye to your girl," the guard said.

"Honey, I have to go now. I love you! Do you still love me? Knock two times if you do."

There were two loud knocks.

"I hope I see you in June, or maybe I'll get to come and do this again."

"Borden!"

"I love you!" Howard told the bottle as he put it back on the shelf where it was. He rejoined Tony and Jeannie, and they all thanked the guard and blinked out. Back at the party, Tony asked Howard, "Isn't that a weird feeling?"

"Isn't what a weird feeling?"

"Talking to a bottle."

Howard shrugged. "I suppose it's better than talking to your pocket."

Tony laughed. "One time I was talking to Jeannie, who was in my pocket, and I said, 'thank you, sweetheart'. My co-worker wanted to know, if I call my shirt 'sweetheart,' what do I call my pants, 'darling'?" Howard thought about that for a minute before laughing.

A short heavyset man with dark hair, wearing a blue and purple djinn outfit, walked up to Jeannie's little sister, Kashi. "I understand you may know something about the whereabouts of a genie named Patna?"

Kashi was shocked. "Sir, go talk to my sister, please. She is the woman in the gold beaded outfit, blond hair, with a tall dark headed man in a deep blue beaded outfit and a slightly shorter one in a maroon outfit."

"The humans?"

"Yes…"

The man went up to Jeannie and made the same inquiry. "I understand you may know something about the whereabouts of a genie named Patna?"

Tony signaled Howard with his eyes: 'don't answer'. Howard didn't get it, but he didn't know how to answer anyway. Both Tony's and Howard's instincts weren't right towards this man, and Jeannie was grabbing Tony to try to tell him that she didn't trust him, either.

"Is she at the party, sir?" Tony asked.

"No. She disappeared about 9 or 10 moons ago," the man said. Tony wondered if this might be her former master. Jeannie grabbed Howard's hand and when he looked at her, she shook her head. He "got" that.

"Disappeared? From where?"

"Patna was in service to an oil man in modern Basra. I went to see her at his place, and he stated that her bottle was accidentally left in a plane when he went to America. A few djinn here said you are an American djinni, so perhaps you have met my daughter."

"America is a big country, sir," Tony responded again. "Who are you? Her former master?"

"No. I am her father."

Howard blurted out, "Her father?" Patty had never mentioned her father.

Tony immediately interrupted to keep Howard from saying anything else, "And you don't know where she is? Hasn't she contacted you since her arrival in America?"

"No."

"Have you tried asking Haji, sir?" Jeannie intervened.

"I would rather not ask anything of Haji. He could have saved my Rashah from her death, when my Patna was a little girl, but he would not." Tony and Jeannie looked at each other, remembering that when Haji had agreed to save Tony from death, he had asked a big sacrifice from Jeannie. The man looked sad. "Patna is my only daughter, and I have not remarried since the death of her mother. I love them both so much, and I miss them terribly. I was just hoping to find someone that might know what has happened to my daughter."

Tony looked over at Howard, and nodded just as Jeannie also nodded. Howard spoke, "I know what has happened to her, sir. She's been bottled, but…"

"Bottled! Why! What did she do wrong!"

"She'll be released in June. She was bottled in June for one year…." Howard looked at his future father-in-law. The man looked to be about his own age, though djinn age is hard to tell, but was shorter and portlier than Howard. "I'm pleased to meet you, sir."

"You know my daughter? You know why she's bottled?"

Jeannie and Tony began to lead the two men to a place in the huge room that was somewhat secluded, so that no one else could hear their conversation. "Yes – it is to make her think about marriage, sir."

"Marriage! Was my daughter contemplating marriage? To whom?"

Howard took a deep breath. It was always intimidating to meet ones future in-laws, but even more so when your fiancé was not there for moral support and to lead you through it. "Me, sir. Howard Borden."

"YOU'RE a HUMAN!"

Tony intervened. "That's why Haji thought it best to bottle her. He's already got three genies who married their masters, but …"

Patty's father noticed something else, "How old are you!"

Howard took a big breath. "Fifty-two."

"Oh my gawd. You are a cradle robber!"

Tony smiled. He had never heard a djinn use that term. "Not really, sir. Jeannie and I were witnesses when your daughter was bottled. If you had seen the loving tenderness that Master Borden showed your daughter, you'd be pleased to see her married to him. She could do far worse."

Patty's father looked at Howard again. "Does my daughter love you?"

"Very much, sir, she says she will marry me when she gets out of the bottle. Haji says we may marry then, as long as we still love each other."

"Hmmpf," the man said, still not introducing himself. "I will be looking in on you, Borden, over the next few months. Where do you live?"

"Chicago." Howard was nervous over the prospect of his future father-in-law just popping in on him in the apartment. It was one thing to have Patty popping in and out, but quite another to have her father. Still, he understood. When Howie announced his engagement to Barbara, both Howard and Howie's mother, Lois, had made sure they approved of Barbara. If he'd had a daughter, he would probably be twice as careful, particularly if the man was twice his daughter's age.

True to his word, Najal popped into Howard's apartment about five minutes after he got home from a week of flights, in January. Najal looked around the place as Howard was unpacking from his trip.

"You expect my daughter to live here?" the future father-in-law asked.

"She lived here with me for three months before Haji bottled her," Howard replied, trying to be polite.

"But not as your wife. A genie in service to a master is accustomed to her bottle. When she leaves service, she expects a nice home."

"If that's what she wants, that's what I'll give her. But she didn't tell me she wants a house."

Three of Patty's American dresses were hanging in Howard's closet, and the observant djinn noticed. "Are those my daughter's clothes, or have you got another woman now?"

Howard stood up from where he'd been crouched over, putting things away. He was indignant that this man would accuse him of something he had not been guilty of. "Those are Patty's – Patna's – dresses for American wear. I've been TOTALLY faithful to her."

"Why are they hanging in your closet? Or did you make her your wife in THAT way before asking Haji for permission?"

Howard shook his head, lying through his teeth and hating it. "These clothes had nothing to do with her genie life, so she hung them there."

Najal seemed happy with the answer, and after a few more questions, popped back to Basra and left Howard alone. Howard was glad that he'd taken Tony's suggestion of disposing of all leftover condoms, because he and Patty usually left the box of packets sitting on the bedside table.

A month later, on Valentines Day, Howard was depressed again. He would have liked to have taken Patty out that night. Instead, he sat at home watching television. The room suddenly filled with royal blue smoke, and it was Haji. Howard stood, not knowing what the protocol was for a human towards the head of the djinn.

"Haji! Have you brought Patty – Patna – to me?"

"No, Master Borden. But I assure you that she is still in her bottle on my shelf."

Howard always wore his heart on his sleeve, and this time was no different. "Haji – I miss her SO much. These last few months without her…" he looked down at the floor, sad.

"That is actually what I came to ask, if you still love her."

"More than ever, Haji, if that's possible." Howard looked up in hope. "Are you going to give her back to me early?"

"No, I cannot do that. You may come and get her on June 4th, if you continue to stay faithful and still love her. I have admired your faithfulness, but wish to let you know that you MAY talk to your co-workers. That is not considered unfaithful, as you must talk to those ladies in performance of your duties as a … pilot?"

"Co-pilot, sir. Most of the flight attendants are married, too. I'm married to Patty in my heart."

"Yes. Well, good-day." Haji smoked out, leaving a small trail of blue smoke that made Howard cough. Now Howard wondered who else might just pop in.

Howard had made a habit, all year, of volunteering to take the holiday flights. He'd done that for years, when he was a bachelor, so that the married guys could stay home with their wives and families. The exception had been Thanksgiving, because of his grandson Nicholas. Otherwise he flew on Labor Day, Halloween, Veterans' Day weekend, Christmas Day, New Year's Day, the entire Presidents' Day weekend, Palm Sunday and Easter, Mother's Day and Memorial Day. After Memorial Day, he stayed in the air 5 more days, and then came down with a request to be off for 4 days starting June 4th. He also told Frank Damian that he'd probably be requesting his accrued vacation, but wasn't sure when yet.

"What's going on, Borden?" Damian asked.

"I'm trying to get my wife back. If I can do it, I'm going to want the honeymoon I've never gotten."

Frank Damian grinned. "Finally winning against that obstinate relative, eh?"

"You could say that."

"Come to me personally. I'll work it out for you."

Howard thanked his boss, and went on his way.


	5. Chapter 5 The Longest Year Patty

**CHAPTER 5 – THE LONGEST YEAR: PATTY**

As Patty smoked into her bottle at Haji's command, her spirit was in tears though her body could no longer formulate them. Years before, when Haji and Asmire had bottled her for disobedience to her training master, she didn't feel like this. Now she felt like her whole heart had been wrenched from her physical form and tossed into the sea. She hadn't been in love with her training master like she was in love with Master Howard. She had never experienced physical love and known the powerful feelings that it produced.

Previous experience had taught Patty what to put in her bottle before a long term stay. Some things were already in the bottle, where they had been for years. She added some new reading material, including a spell book from her training days, a human calendar for counting the worldly days to her release, and a picture of Howard. It was from a few years before, when he wore a khaki-colored uniform instead of the blue of Con-Air, but she didn't care. She placed it on a small table inside her bottle so that she could see it every day. In this way, Howard was still with her.

Patty had learned how to go into an ethereal state, in her djinn training class. One of the other students in her class had told them quietly, "this will be very useful if we are ever bottled." Indeed, on Patty's first bottling, she used that spell. There was also a spell that could take a djinn spirit out of the bottle, so that one could keep up with human events. She had learned that spell in class, too, but never bothered to use it in her first bottling. This time, she would practice it. She wanted to go over to Chicago and check on Howard.

It took several tries to get the Spirit-from-the-Bottle spell working correctly. At first, she was lucky to get around Haji's Castle a little bit. She learned that she had to work it to get around the barrier on the Chamber Room, too. It was three months before she got out of the castle, and another two months before she could get all the way to the Lake Shore Drive apartment. Unfortunately, when she got there, Howard wasn't there. She assumed he was flying. Disappointed that she couldn't see him, she was also pleased that he was keeping busy so that his time would go faster. Actually, he was in Minneapolis seeing his grandson for the first time, but she didn't know that.

She was in an ethereal state when the bottle was jostled in December. Patty immediately broke the ethereal spell and went into spirit form as the bottle moved up and down and side to side. With the little light that came through the sides of the bottle, Patty could see a male form and it appeared to be dusting off the bottle. Oh, just someone cleaning perhaps, she thought.

"Patty? Can you hear me, sweetheart? If you can, tap on the side twice."

It was Howard! It sounded just like the love of her life! Had he come to rescue her? How was he planning to do that? Maybe he was going to steal her bottle? But Haji would come after him! How could she tell him not to take it? She took a pencil that she had in there with her, blinked it into a metal bar, and rapped on the side of her bottle twice. It chipped the side a little, but she would fix that later. Communicating with Howard was much more important!

"Sweetheart, it's me, Howard. Howard Borden. Honey, I've missed you a lot. Knock twice if you still miss me."

She took the bar again and whacked the side of the bottle. Miss him! He did not know how MUCH she missed him!

"I wish I could get you out of there, sweetheart. You need to see your new …" he stopped, "you need to see my new grandson. His name is Nicholas - Nicholas Howard Borden, and he looks just like my son. Knock if you heard me!"

Oh, how exciting! She tried to picture a newborn baby boy, and Howard holding him in his arms. She wanted him to be holding his son – her son – she could have been pregnant with his child by now. But she knew how important this grandson was to Howard, so she banged on the side again.

"I'm here at a party for some 200th wedding anniversary. I just can't wait for us to have a party for our wedding, and a 1st anniversary would be nice too."

Oh, would that not be lovely! Patty banged on the side again in agreement. She wanted to be Howard's wife, to be there every day for him, to sleep with him, make love to him, make his breakfast and also be his genie. She threw the bar against the side once more.

"Tony and Jeannie have been really good friends. I wouldn't be here without Jeannie."

That is a good thing, Patty thought. He was getting to know the other djinn families in the United States. Then, it wasn't clear, but someone else said something to Howard.

"Honey, I have to go now. I love you! Do you still love me? Knock two times if you do."

Patty picked up the bar again and rapped.

"I hope I see you in June, or maybe I'll get to come and do this again."

She screamed at him, "I love you!" but of course, her spirit form could not be heard outside of the bottle.

"I love you!" She heard Howard's last words, and then it felt as if the bottle was being placed somewhere else.

If Patty's spirit could cry, she would have been in tears at that point. If she had been in human flesh form, she would have been physically aching for him. Her spirit was so depressed, that she spelled herself back into the ethereal state – time went so much faster in that way.

Finding out what day it was, when she spelled herself out of the ethereal state, was not an easy job. Patty devised a listening device, which was placed on the side of the bottle. She would listen carefully whenever it sounded like someone was in the room, and hope that they would talk about the calendar. It was rare, but once she heard:

"Tomorrow is the 14th, sir. In the American human world, couples will be making eyes at one another." Patty didn't know the voice.

"Yes, Valentines Day," she heard Haji's unmistakable voice. "Speaking of that, I have a special job to do tomorrow, regarding one of my couples."

Patty flipped through the calendar quickly, still listening.

"Where are you going?"

"Chicago."

Patty was excited. Haji was going to Chicago on February 14th, and Howard lived in Chicago! Maybe he would bring Howard back to her! Patty stayed in her spirit form. The next day, she heard Haji again, speaking to one of his assistants most likely:

"Borden is fine. He is staying quite faithful to our young genie." Patty was thrilled to hear Haji say that.

"How is he coping?"

"He still wishes for his genie back. But I gave him the date. June 4th."

Patty was overjoyed to have an actual date of release. She debated staying in a spirit form, but the days passed too slowly. She spelled herself back into the ethereal state, where she stayed until Memorial Day.

"What is all the racket over the United States today?" an assistant questioned.

"It is a holiday known as Memorial Day, for remembering those that have died in wars. Hah. They better watch themselves politically – I have heard many rumblings in modern day Baghdad." Haji stated, somewhat worried.

Memorial Day! Patty flipped through her American calendar until she found it: May 28th, 1990. Her eyes lit up – that was only 7 days from her release! She wondered if Howard was still going to come and get her, or if she would be given to another master. Or, worse yet, back to her father. THAT, she felt, would be a fate worse than death. So….a week from today, would she be a married (or about to be married) woman? Or a genie with another master?


	6. Chapter 6 Till His Death Do Us Part

**CHAPTER 6 – TILL HIS DEATH DO US PART**

(Borderline M: Mature: sexual references)

June 3rd, the calendar read. Howard was pacing around his apartment. He had cleaned it so many times that it shone. He had filled the refrigerator till it was stuffed full. His clothes were cleaned and pressed, and he had also washed the few dresses that Patty had left in his closet.

Still, he was worried. What if Patty had changed her mind since he had talked to her back in December? He couldn't bear it if she had. If she had, he was going to try to find a new place to live. Then he became worried about something else – what if his transportation to Haji's Chambers couldn't take him? Jeannie was his only way over there, or so he thought.

Howard picked up his address book and looked up the Nelson phone number in Houston. "Jeannie? It's Howard – Howard Borden…. Oh, I'm sorry, Janae, can I talk to your mother? Thanks." He waited for Janae to put her mother on. The two women had phone voices that sounded exactly alike.

Talking to Jeannie, she said that both she and Tony would come and get him the next morning. Tony was even taking the day off work. Howard paced the apartment for the rest of the day.

True to their word, Jeannie and Tony blinked into Howard's apartment at 9:00 on the morning of Monday, June 4th. Jeannie was in her djinn outfit, and Tony was in his full dress blues for Air Force. Howard looked down at himself. "Am I dressed all right?" He had put on one of the new dark grey Brooks Brothers suits that Patty had blinked up for him over a year before. He'd lost a little weight and the pants hung on him. But the light grey dress shirt and the deep blue silk tie made him look distinguished.

"You look wonderful, Howard. I am sure that Patna will fall in love with you again," Jeannie said, confidently.

Tony nodded. "You've lost a little weight. How'd you do it?" Tony was fighting a constant battle with his weight, and a flight he was to take in 1991 rode on his weight loss.

Howard shook his head. "I don't know. Does it look bad?"

"No, I'm just wondering how you did it – I need to lose another 10 pounds," Tony said. Jeannie whispered something to him. Aloud, he added, "Oh, never mind." It was probably depression that had caused the weight loss, Jeannie had suggested.

The three landed outside of Haji's Chambers, inside his castle, at the appointed hour of 9:30 a.m. Howard knocked tentatively, feeling in mixed emotions of fear and excitement. One of Haji's assistants opened the door. "Right on time, very punctual," he stated. "Haji, your 9:30 appointment?"

Jeannie dropped to a bow on her knees at Haji's feet. Tony did a slight bow from the waist, ever uncomfortable, so Howard followed suit. Haji said something in Persian, and Jeannie stood.

"You have come for your genie?" Haji asked Howard.

"Yes, sir."

"You have been very faithful to her. I have admired that. Many men would not have stayed celibate."

"I love her. She is going to be my wife, if she will have me," Howard phrased it in the way that Tony had suggested.

"Yes. If SHE still desires that," Haji stated. He rose from his chair, went to the shelf that Howard had been eyeing since walking into the room, and pulled a very dusty red and gold bottle from it. Howard reached for the bottle, but Haji handed it to his assistant instead. "This bottle has not been dusted in a year. Please clean it." The assistant took the bottle, blinked, the dust flew off, and the bottle was handed back to Haji. "Thank you."

Jeannie coughed, as did Tony, when the dust flew in their direction. "Haji, you must get someone to dust your shelves a little more often," Jeannie told him.

Haji smiled. "My castle is not fastidious enough for you, my dear?"

Tony gave a wry smile. "My wife keeps our house so that it can pass the white-glove test." Howard grinned, understanding that from American television commercials. Haji didn't.

Howard was impatient. He wanted that bottle, and it was all he could do to keep from snatching it away from Haji. But he knew he couldn't do that. "Um….Haji….may I…"

Haji loved prolonging the suspense and the agony, and was quite good at it. "Oh, was there something you desired, Master Borden?"

For once, Howard had the right answer. "Yes, sir, I wish for my bottle back, please!"

"No, that is not how we shall do this. I shall release the genie. If she goes into your arms when she is released, she is yours. If she does not, she becomes mine and I shall give her to another master. Is that clear?"

"As daylight, sir."

Howard, Tony and Jeannie all watched as Haji took the stopper off the red-and-gold bottle and summoned out his genie. "Genie Patna, smoke out!" he said, and placed the bottle on a small table. Red and gold smoke billowed from the bottle, but it was a few minutes before they saw the human shape of Patna al Basrah emerge from the smoke. She looked at Haji, Jeannie Nelson, Tony Nelson, and then … she threw herself into the waiting arms of Master Howard Borden.

"MASTER HOWARD!" She cried, throwing her arms around his waist and smashing herself against him.

"Patty!" The two embraced in a tight hug. Jeannie cried and didn't hide it, tears of joy. Tony grinned. Haji turned his back, as did the assistants. That was good, as Howard kissed his bride-to-be. "Oh, Patty, I missed you so much," he whispered in her ear after kissing her lovingly and tenderly, tasting the lips he had not tasted in a year. "I love you. Do you still want to marry me?"

"I still love you, and want to marry you, YES." She showed him that his ring was still on her human form's finger. They kissed again, and then turned to Haji. When they spoke, Haji faced them. "Haji, we still wish to be married. As soon as possible," Patty told him.

"Master Borden?"

"Whenever you can marry us, we'd like that. We'll do it in America when we can."

Haji called his assistants, and soon there were blinks going on all over the place. "Patna – did you wish for your father to be a part of this?"

"My father!" Patty questioned.

"You never introduced me, Patty, but he found me back in December. Don't you think it would be a good idea to invite your daddy?" Howard told her. Patty looked quite ashamed.

"I am sorry, Master Howard. My father and I had a big argument, many years ago, over my behavior at Djinn Training. We never resolved it," Patty explained.

"You need to. Family is very important," Howard had firm family values. That immediately impressed Haji. "If Howie could be at this one, I'd want him here, but Jeannie says he can't be."

"I suppose my father should be invited," Patty said, reluctantly and somewhat glumly. One of Haji's assistants popped out.

An hour later, a small group assembled in a chamber elsewhere in old Baghdad: Haji, Asmire, some of Haji's assistants, Howard, Patty, Tony, Jeannie, and Najal. The genies assisted Howard and Tony in putting on the strange garb, by blink, before the wedding ceremony began, while all the djinn blinked on their own garb and set up the room.

It was a ceremony that Tony was familiar with – he had done this twice, with Jeannie. For Howard, it was a strange sensation. Jeannie stood up with Patna, and Tony for Howard, feeding him the lines in Persian that he needed and had never had the opportunity to learn. Najal had made up with his daughter and was there for her, as well, saying, "Oh, I wish your mother could be here" over and over again until Haji exasperatingly told him, "If Allah wishes for her to see this, she will." The only similarity to this ceremony and an American human ceremony were the witnesses, and the token "seal it with a kiss" at the end. Howard hadn't been told what to expect so when Haji said in Persian, "kiss the bride", he didn't know what to do. Patty pulled him down towards her, by his neck, and kissed him soundly on the mouth.

The ceremony ended with the presentation of the Djinn Marriage Scroll to the groom. Patty told Howard, when he looked perplexed, "That means we are married." His grin went from one room to the next. "But we still should do this in America, so our marriage is recognized there." She smiled at him, he grinned back, and they grabbed each other in a hug again. She whispered, "Let us go to our apartment. I wish to be in your bed now." He nodded, she blinked, and they landed in the Lake Shore Drive apartment, still in each other's arms. Jeannie and Tony watched, glad that it worked out so well for the happy couple, hopeful that Patty understood what it would be like to be married to an airline co-pilot 28 years older than she. They blinked back to Houston, leaving Najal to wonder about his daughter's marriage, and Haji and his crew to blink up the pieces.

Released from Howard's arms right after they landed back in the apartment, Patty looked around. Howard took her bottle, which had been stuck in his hand just before Patty blinked them from Baghdad, and placed it in its rightful place on the dresser in the bedroom. Patty went through the kitchen, the living room, into the bathroom, and then into the bedroom. She stood and stared at the bed. Howard looked at her.

"Honey, if there's something you want to change, go ahead. The apartment needs a woman's touch."

She nodded, looking back up at Howard, questioningly.

"Your daddy said you might like a house – a real house," Howard told her.

"I am comfortable here – for now – but there is no room for a baby, here," she told him. "Where do Howie and the new baby stay, when they're here?"

"They've never been here. I go there."

"If I have a baby, will we get a new apartment or a house?"

"You betcha."

Patty looked at him and spoke very low and sexily, "I am in my fertile cycle right now."

"Ooh! Let's go make a baby. We'll give my grandson an uncle or aunt that he can play with." Howard had spent some time in the last year, figuring out the relationship between his possible second child and his grandson.

They made sweet love in Howard's bed that night, making it officially Howard's and Patty's bed. They laid together, both naked with Patty's legs wrapped around Howard as he ravished her up and down her body with his tongue. Between tastes, he whispered to her, "I dreamed a lot about doing this, while you were gone."

"I did, too, Howard. Love me, please."

"I do love you. But we're going to take our time." His fingers ran over her lithe body, giving her tingling pleasure all over but particularly where her legs met. She kissed him, and then ran her lips and tongue all over him. She licked a little in that special place, but then he told her, "We'll save that for later." He laid her back and went to enter her.

"Master – you forgot something."

"What?"

"One of those little packets?"

"No, sweet thing. I'm going to make you a mother on our wedding night, if I can. Remember? If I put one of those on, you won't be a mother."

It seemed to excite her more, the thought of becoming a mother. She was 25, and it was time. "Please, Howard!" she begged him, moving her hips around.

"Yes, love," he told her, and kissed her as he entered her for the first time in a little over a year. It hurt a little for her, but it was ecstasy to him, celibate for so long. As he moved within her, though, the pain eased and the exquisite feel began to come through. He felt different to her without one of those latex things, and it seemed to give him more freedom to move around. "I'm not afraid that it will fall off when it's not there," he seemed to read her thoughts. "I love you so much, Patty."

"Oh, Howard, I love YOU!" she replied back, meeting his strokes perfectly. He could feel her urges building within her, and moved around and around to give her the sensation that she needed, and then side to side. "Oh! OH!" She burst forth like a firework, her entire body shuddering. Her femaleness grabbed at him and suddenly he felt something he had never felt before – the milking of his arousal, and the dance of their organs that went on for almost five minutes, totally exhausting him.

"What WAS that!" Howard exclaimed and questioned when he had finally caught his breath. "Did that just signal that we made a baby? Genies can feel that?"

Patty, happy and content, took her husband in her arms. "No, sweetheart. That was something Jeannie told me about. It is a special sort of orgasm that my body brings yours to when there is no barrier present like a condom. It is very fulfilling, is it not?" She sighed and the two kissed.

"Patty – I won't hide this from you – I've been having sex with girls since I was 16 years old. I've NEVER felt anything like THAT!" Howard never wanted to use a condom again with Patty, even after she had a baby, if that was the result.

"Jeannie said that I should use a diaphragm if I want to prevent babies, not condoms. It was very difficult for her to talk to me about this, but she felt it was necessary."

Two months later, Howard came home from a weeklong trip one morning to find his wife in the bathroom, throwing up. Jeannie was in the living room of the apartment, sitting at the sofa reading a Genie Journal.

"Welcome home, Master Howard," Jeannie told him. "Your wife is in there. I shall go now."

"Why are you here?" Howard worried.

"She needed a little support, and came to get me. I did not think she was ever going to get there – she missed my house four times," Jeannie said. "But that is to be expected." She put an emphasis on the word "expected." They heard the sounds of the toilet flushing. "I shall be going. Tell Patty that I am in Houston if she needs me and to USE the PHONE!" Jeannie blinked out.

"Patty? Honey, what's going on?" Howard went into the bedroom.

Patty came out of the bathroom, wearing her red and gold pajamas and looking quite pale. "Oh – Master – you are home!" Howard didn't know if her expression was of fear or sadness.

"Are you all right?"

"I am fine – or at least, I will be back to normal in perhaps 7 months or so," Patty said, tiredly.

"But what was Jeannie doing here?" He took her around one shoulder and walked her into the living room.

Patty shrugged and plopped down on the sofa, obviously exhausted. "I had to go see Dr Ahmann, and I could not get there under my own power. I barely made it to Houston."

"She just said you missed her house four times. Patty – tell me – what's WRONG?"

She smiled up at him, "Nothing – Daddy."

Howard looked around. "I don't see Najal. What are you talking about?"

"My FATHER is not here, but there IS a daddy in this room!" Patty thought that sometimes Howard could be denser than she could take.

"Where?"

She blinked, and this time it worked – he landed next to her on the sofa. "Sitting right next to me is a man who is going to be a daddy again next March. Jeannie does not know how you are going to feel when you are 72 and graduating your child from high school, but that is the way it will be."

Howard FINALLY "got" it. "A daddy? I'm going to be a daddy again? Nicholas is going to have an uncle or an aunt? Howie's going to have a little brother or sister, finally, after 26 years?" He threw his arms around Patty, kissed her, then got up and almost danced around the room. "Oh, I've got to call work! I'm not going in tomorrow!"

"Oh, yes, you are! You will keep to your normal schedule, Master Daddy! You will come and go as you always have! You cannot get me to and from Dr Ahmann's office in old Baghdad anyway – Jeannie or my father will have to do that."

"Dr Ahmann?"

"The djinn doctor. He rolled his eyes. This will be the 5th baby of a human father. Jeannie had two, her sister has one, a genie in Canada has one, and now me. To say that Dr Ahmann is not thrilled is an understatement. He says it is an epidemic."

Howard turned Patty so she would lean on him, spoon position. He rubbed her abdomen. "Oh, little baby. Daddy loves you, and I think your mommy is going to love you too."

"Howard – he or she is yours – of course I love the baby." Her hand joined his to rub.

"What is – what is genie pregnancy like?"

"Jeannie and Kashi – that is her sister – both said it is like human, but a little different. Master Daddy – I may lose my powers completely. They have already gone erratic."

"When do we know if the baby is a genie?" Before they had ever gone to see Haji, Patty had explained to Howard about babies between djinn and humans. She wanted him to know that it was a toss-up, whether a baby would be a djinn or a human. Howard didn't really care what the baby was…boy or girl, djinn or human.

"After the baby is born, if or when he ever shows powers - Kashi's son is human – Robert never showed any powers. Jeannie has a strong one, and a weak one. Dr Ahmann says that the Canadian's son is also human."


	7. Chapter 7 Calling All No American Djinn

**CHAPTER 7 – CALLING ALL NORTH AMERICAN DJINN**

Jeannie set up a party in Houston, on New Years Eve. Rather than entertaining Tony's astronaut colleagues, as she had so many times in the past, she decided to invite all the djinn families in North America. Children were invited to THIS party, not left out as they often were for New Years Eve. They had lost track of Tim and Tiffany (Tarania, as her djinni name was), and Tim's colleague Ray. Jeannie put out feelers in the djinn world for their whereabouts, finally locating them all in Vancouver, British Columbia.

It was a lovely group that evening. Jeannie and Tony had invited Roger and Tracy, and their daughter Skylar, since all were used to djinn. Kashi and Mark (a human) brought their 9 year old human son Robert. Tim (another human) and Tiffany brought their 6 year old human son Thomas, as well as Ray and his wife Georgia (both humans), since they were also used to the djinn world. Jeannie had to send Janae up to Chicago to blink Howard and Patty down, because Patty had lost her powers completely when she was 5 months along.

All the women, including Tracy and Georgia, made over Patty's pregnancy. Roger watched Tracy carefully, as she had a tendency to be a little unbalanced when around pregnant females, since she had 4 miscarriages over the years. But she seemed all right. He also watched Howard, knowing that at one time, Howard had a big crush on Tracy, but that was for naught – Howard doted on Patty, staying by her side the entire time. It was obvious to everyone that he adored her. Patty was due in 10 weeks and was quite large.

"I do not understand that," Patty said of her size. "I am so small, and my mother was small."

"Yes, but look at Howard, and look at your father's weight," Tony told her. "Your husband is tall, and your father…."

In another part of the room, Roger shook his head at Tim. "You've been in Vancouver for TEN YEARS!"

"Yup," Tim smiled. "I just got out of the Air Force three years ago. I work with Boeing down in Everett sometimes."

"I did too, but that was from 83 to 86, before I went back to NASA."

Tim shook his head in disbelief. "I was at Boeing off and on during those years, too, for the Air Force. You'd think we would have run into each other!" They had met years before, on a survival run in the Yukon Territory, and when it was discovered months later that they had djinn in common, it cemented a friendship. Unfortunately, though, they had lost track of each other for more than 12 years.

Everyone left with phone numbers, vowing to keep Patty and Howard in the loop. Jeannie felt that Haji would appreciate that. It wouldn't be long, she also thought, before Janae and T.J. would add families to the group. Neither of the children expressed any desire to live in old Baghdad when they grew up. Janae wanted to go to college in the United States, and T.J. to the Air Force Military Academy so he could fly (though that changed occasionally to Navy Military Academy so he could fly the Marines' Harriers).


	8. Chapter 8 Dr Ahmann Pleads the Fifth

**CHAPTER 8 – DR. AHMANN PLEADS THE FIFTH**

(High Teen rating: some language)

Jeannie got a frantic phone call in early March, from Patty in Chicago. "I have to go to the hospital, Jeannie, and I cannot get there. I have NO powers!" Jeannie blinked to Chicago to find that Howard was gone on a flight. She blinked with Patty over to Dr Ahmann's in old Baghdad, made sure she was settled with a nurse, and then went two other places. In Albuquerque, she got Kashi to go stay with Patty until she could get back – Robert was in school and Mark would pick him up from school.

At Patty's and Howard's apartment, Jeannie found a copy of his flight schedule, and found that he might be between flights with a layover in Denver. She blinked all over the Denver Airport, which was under reconstruction, and finally located him in the Pilots' Lounge.

"Jeannie! What are you doing here!" Howard was glad to see her, yet worried. Jeannie smiled, because Howard never seemed as nervous about her sudden appearances as Tony always was.

"Your wife needs you right now, Master Borden." Jeannie called him by his formal name because she was working.

"Now? But I've got a flight leaving in…" he looked at his watch, "…about two hours."

"I have not blinked a double in a very long time, Master Borden, and I do not know if I could blink one that could fly a plane. But she is at Dr Ahmann's and I believe you would like to be there?"

"Why?"

Now Jeannie was irritated at Howard's scatterbrain trait. "Do you not wish to see your child born?"

Howard looked stunned. "NOW? But Patty's not due for another week!"

"Babies come when they wish to, not when they are expected." Jeannie remembered that Tony and Roger had both behaved this way and resisted the urge to giggle.

Howard headed for the airline office, Jeannie at his heels – the man had an incredible amount of energy for his age, she thought. He introduced her briefly as his wife's friend and then said he had to fly HOME, not to his next destination which was Seattle; his wife was in the hospital having their baby. The airline officer looked at Howard in amazement, probably due to his age, but said, "All right, we'll get a sub on that flight." It usually wasn't done, but they'd had four canceled flights due to weather and so they had 4 crews on standby.

Jeannie got the two of them to Dr Ahmann's just in time to find Patty, with Kashi at her side, going into delivery. "This one is in a hurry," Dr Ahmann's head nurse told Jeannie. "Where is the father?"

"I'm right here," Howard told her. Kashi and Jeannie stayed out, while Howard went in with his wife.

Kashi shook her head. "She is really frightened, sister."

"Do you think she will be all right now that her husband is here?"

"I hope so. She is so very young, and he is so much older. I hope he can calm her down."

Patty was beside herself, out of control. Dr Ahmann didn't seem to be bothered and let her go through this stage. "This hurts, I don't want to do this, take it out of me, let me go!" she screamed.

"PATTY." It was Howard. With help from the nurse, he was placed right in front of her where she could see him. Standing with his hands on his hips, wearing his airline blues, he looked commanding. "Stop that! It's me."

"Go away. YOU did this to me! You son-of-a-bitch! I don't want to do this! THIS HURTS!"

The nurse looked at him. "She is in transition. She does not mean a thing she is saying right now, Master Borden. Do not take it personally."

He nodded. "My son is 26, but I remember when my first wife called me a bastard while he was being born."

The nurse laughed. "So which are you, Master Borden, a son-of-a-bitch or a bastard?"

Howard looked at her and almost seriously said, "Maybe both." He leaned down and stroked Patty's face, very lovingly, with his handkerchief. The nurses were in awe of Howard's uniform. Three of the human fathers had been wearing uniforms during their baby's birth, and a fourth had shown up wearing a strange looking costume. "Patty, it's me, Howard. Your husband. Honey, you need to calm down. The baby needs your strength."

"You couldn't WAIT to knock me up, could you?" Patty yelled at him. Howard jumped back, in shock. This didn't sound like his genie. "All you wanted to do is fuck the hell out of me!" The nurses were appalled at that language. "Get the hell out of here!"

"I think that little genie has been watching many American movies and television shows. Such language I do not hear from other genies!" Dr Ahmann commented, and left.

The nurse put her hand on Howard's shoulder. "She's almost ready to deliver. She'll calm down when she gets to 10."

The other nurse chuckled and said to Patty, "You should be so lucky. A lot of women have husbands that don't look at them."

The first nurse looked at the other one and whispered, "Ah, give her about six weeks. She'll be back in bed, spread-eagled and begging him to get her pregnant again. She's plenty young." She looked up at Howard. "She's your wife and you have a son her age?" He nodded. "Amazing, for a human."

The nurses were right in their predictions. Within minutes, Patty went to 10 and began the hard work of delivery, calming down considerably. Howard had shed his airline jacket and was sitting by her side, wiping her brow. He had only once taken a childbirth class – all airline flight crew employees were required to take one in case a passenger decided to give birth in flight. The nurses told him to wipe her brow, offer her ice chips and just give her loving support to his best ability.

One nurse said to the other, out of earshot of Howard, "I'll bet this one falls apart during delivery."

"Oh, I don't know. He's a pilot."

"Five says he does."

"You're on."

Dr Ahmann came back in, and looked at Howard. "Another human in my delivery room," was all he said, shaking his head.

"Hello," Howard said. "You're a DOCTOR?" Dr Ahmann looked like a typical Arab, with long white gown, white cap, gray beard and mustache, huge dark grey eyebrows, and big brown eyes. He had no gloves or mask on.

"I have been birthing djinn for over 3000 years."

"Oh." Howard had adopted his wife's favorite response to things, a simple "oh".

"Fall apart in my delivery room and you will see what happens from a djinn doctor," Dr Ahmann warned him.

From the birthing bed, Patty squeaked out a very weak, "He will not." Howard breathed a sigh of relief – Patty was talking more like herself now. "Howard – it is time."

"Ssh, sweetheart. Save your strength. You're going to need it very soon."

"PUSH!" hollered one of the nurses squatting at Patty's feet. She was on an inclined birthing bed. Howard noticed that Patty pushed down with her abdoment and a lot of blood came out. He turned his head away. Blood was not something he liked, and he didn't want to find out what Dr Ahmann was threatening. Patty had told him that Jeannie had threatened Healey with a one-way blink to the North Pole for something, and that didn't sound very appealing.

Three more pushes, and a nurse cried out, "There's a head!" Howard looked down for the first view of his second baby. There was blood, but he focused on the tiny ear and face he could see from his vantage point. He was already in love with it and the blood didn't bother him any more.

Howard told her, "Another push, honey. Come on." He leaned down and kissed her forehead, wondering if he'd done the right thing in getting her pregnant so soon.

The shoulders appeared, and Dr Ahmann said, "One more little one," and Patty pushed. The baby came out, and like in humans, the baby was attached to the umbilical cord. The doctor turned the baby over. "It's a boy!" There was a cheer among the nurses.

"Whoo-hoo!" The very happy human husband leaned down to give his djinni wife a kiss. "Did you hear that, sweetheart? It's a boy! We've got a son!" He stood up quickly and one of the nurses pushed his shoulder to make him sit back down.

Patty was exhausted. "I am … so … glad…"

"One more push to get the afterbirth, Genie of Borden," Dr Ahmann told her. Howard held her hand, and whispered, "You can do it."

The nurses were amazed. The one who thought Howard would fall apart said to the other quietly, "I owe you five. I could have sworn."

"I know. These humans are stronger than we give them credit for."

"Five deliveries of children from human fathers…and the fourth boy," Dr Ahmann commented. "One is part-djinn, two are humans. I wonder what this one will be?"

Jeannie was waiting outside the delivery room, along with her sister Kashi, when Dr Ahmann came out. "Dr Ahmann?"

"You ladies all stay together, do you not?" he told them. "Boy. The nurses are cleaning him up. I am sure that Master Borden will be out shortly."

"He made it, did he?" Kashi grinned, while Jeannie exclaimed, "Oh! A boy!"

"We did not think he would, at first. He was very pale at the first sight of blood. But he…dealt with it, as your humans would say. I thought he was going to fly without his plane when I told him it was a boy."

Howard came out a few minutes later, carrying a bundle of wrapped baby carefully and grinning from ear to ear. "Ladies…Thanks for getting us here. I'd like to show you my son."

Jeannie and Kashi both peeked at the little red bundle, and smiled. They looked back up at Howard. "Does he have a name?"

"Patrick Howard Borden. Patrick for his mother, Patty, and Howard for me."

"No Howard Jr?" Jeannie asked.

"There's already one of those, who doesn't know yet that Patty was pregnant."

Jeannie blinked, and into her hands came a Polaroid camera, with film in it. "Hold the baby up, Master Borden….Howard," she said, realizing she wasn't on duty right now. He did so, so that the face of young Patrick would show. Jeannie took a picture, removed it from the camera, and then took a 2nd one when Howard didn't know – he was looking at the baby with such love on his face that Jeannie was touched.

A few minutes later, Jeannie removed the backing of the first photo, to reveal a clear picture of a loving father holding his baby. The baby's face clearly showed in the picture. In the second photo, the baby's face also came out beautifully evident. As Jeannie handed the pictures to Howard, who had allowed Kashi to hold his son, Jeannie told him, "Your son is human."

"How do you know that already?"

"He photographs very well. Djinn do not photograph at all. My husband must get paintings done of Janae and me. Half-djinn photograph with a halo around them, which is difficult to remove from photographs. There is a spell to get rid of that, but also one that can be placed on the djinn to help. But your son photographs well with no halo – as Kashi's son did at birth."

"Does that always work?"

"It has worked in all 4 cases, I am told. Tim used it for Thomas and predicted his full humanness."

Kashi looked at Jeannie. "I wonder why you're the only one that has delivered djinn. The rest of us have all had human boys."

Dr Ahmann was listening to part of the conversation. "An old djinn legend said that girls were likely to get the djinn genes. Boys are not. We are not sure how T.J. got a few but not all of them. But Janae has enough human genes to cause her to need human inoculations as well as the djinn shots."

"But Dr Ahmann – the original djinn legend was that a genie would lose her powers if she married her master. That turned out not to be true," Jeannie argued.

He shrugged. "But the legend regarding the mixing of the blood appears to be true – girls are more likely to be djinn than the boys. Jeannie, we said you were the test case in our world. Now there are three others, to prove our theories correct or incorrect."

Kashi looked at Jeannie. "I am glad I still have my powers, and Mark is happy that Robert takes after him."

"Anthony would like T.J. to be a full human, but T.J. is testing our medical skills in the djinn world," Jeannie said.

Howard was listening to the exchange, rocking his son back and forth a little. He finally looked up and said, "I'm glad Patty had a boy. My grandson is going to have a playmate someday…his daddy's little brother."


	9. Chapter 9 Changes Afoot

**CHAPTER 9 – CHANGES AFOOT**

"You have not told him yet! And why not?" Patty was aghast over something Howard had just told her.

"I never had the opportunity – I didn't know how."

"And now we have got this other to tell him," Patty lamented. "Well, get Patrick's diaper bag and we will go now."

"NOW? But-"

"We will go by BLINK, Master. My powers have been back since Patrick was a day old," Patty reminded him. "He is now 8 days old and I am able to blink us long distances. No more excuses. We will go NOW."

"But-"

She grabbed the diaper bag and the baby, stood next to Howard before he could object any further, and blinked them from the Chicago apartment to the front of Howie's home in Minneapolis. She handed the diaper bag to Howard and rang Howie's doorbell.

Barbara answered the door, with a 16-month old boy toddling behind her. She noticed Patty first, and then looked up at her father-in-law. "Howard! Patty? Why didn't you tell us you were coming? Come in, please!"

"Thank you," Patty answered, and the three came in.

"Howie! Your dad is here!"

Howie bounded down the stairs, picking up his son so he wouldn't dart outside. "Dad? You didn't tell us you were flying in."

"Well – it was a – last minute decision. I hope it's all right," Howard ventured. "You remember Patty, right? Patty – you remember Howie and Barbara? And this is my grandson, Nicholas." He picked up Nicholas. "Oh! You're heav – you're getting heavier!"

"He's a big boy for his age," Howie bragged. "Hi, Patty, good to see you again."

"We have two pieces of news, Howie, Barbara – that's what we came to tell you. Well…three."

"Let's all go in the living room," Barbara said, trying to see if that was a baby that Patty was carrying. They all went in and sat down. Howie put Nicholas on the floor in front of some of his toys.

"You all haven't been told … Patty and I were married in June," Howard dropped that bombshell first.

Howie and Barbara just stared at first. "Why didn't you tell us, Dad? Or invite us?"

Patty answered that one. "We were married overseas. I am from the mid-east, and the ceremony is quite private in my country."

"Eventually we'll have a ceremony here in the United States, but we've been a little…busy," Howard continued. "Um – Howie…" Howard picked up Patrick from Patty, and brought him over to his oldest son, "this is your brother, Patrick." Howie's eyes grew huge as he took his baby brother from his father.

"DAD? You're both a grandpa and a new dad at the same time?"

Howard grinned from ear to ear, and Patty said, "It will seem strange at family reunions, to hear two little boys crying "Daddy!" and having both of you answer."

"Then … this would be Nicholas'…" Howie was trying to figure it out.

"Patrick is Nicholas' uncle," Howard answered.

Barbara shook her head in shock. "I figured you two would get married, but I thought Howard wouldn't want to be playing Daddy into his 70s."

"We think Patrick will be our one and only," Patty told them.

Howie sat on the sofa, looking in awe at his little brother. "He looks like Nicholas did as a baby, Dad."

"Which means he looks like you, because Nicholas looked just like you, son," Howard was a proud dad and grandpa.

Howie passed the baby to Barbara. Nicholas tried to see. Barbara said, "Nicholas, this is Patrick. You two can play together when he's a little older. Patrick what?"

Patty smiled. "We took a tip from you. Patrick Howard Borden. It will keep that name in the family."

Barbara suddenly thought of something. "Gee, Howie, now we know where all those outgrown clothes and toys can go – Patrick will get them!"

"Sounds good to me! So…Dad…." Howie was a little afraid to broach this, "…what's the third thing you wanted to tell us?" He was afraid his dad might tell him there was another baby somewhere, or maybe bad news.

"Oh. We're … moving."

"Moving? Are you finally getting out of that apartment and buying a house? You should have done that, years ago, Dad!" Howie was relieved.

"Well…we ARE going to buy a house … but it will be in Houston." Howard said.

"HOUSTON! As in Texas?"

"Yes. I'm not going to fly regularly any more. I made one big mistake, son, one I don't want to make again. I didn't get to see you grow up. Your mom once accused me of letting our marriage break up because I was always gone. She was right. It split our marriage, and I didn't get to see much of you. I'm not going to make that mistake with Patrick." That was a long speech, for Howard.

"So what will you do in Houston?"

"That's my airline's headquarters, you know. I've got a new position there in the downtown corporate office starting in May. I'll fly often enough to keep up my qualifications, but most every night I'll be home."

The Sr. Bordens left the home of the Jr. Bordens a few hours later, blinking home to the apartment in Chicago. Barbara looked out the window to see them leave, and was surprised to see them gone. "Howie – they've already gone. How could they leave so fast?"

Howie shook his head. "Things have happened so fast – my dad married a third time, a new baby at HIS age – gosh, he'll be 54 next week – and they're moving. If they just … pop out … I don't think it would surprise me." He was still mulling everything over. "And my dad not flying? He's been flying since long before I was born! My mom says she didn't think I'd even exist if it weren't for the airline strike of 1964. I wonder how Dad knocked Patty up so fast!"

Back in Chicago, Patty tucked a sleeping Patrick into a crib that was in the living room, rubbed his back and said, "Goodnight, my sweet one." Howard added his loving backrub. He took his wife by her hand, and in the middle of the living room, he pulled her into an embrace.

"Patty, thanks."

"For what?"

"For helping me tonight. I don't know why, but I was so scared to tell Howie about Patrick, and about our move. But he took it so well … I think it was your magic."

"ME! I did not blink!"

"Not that kind of magic, honey. You have a way about you that makes people feel good. I think it happened tonight." Howard hugged his wife and kissed her. "You make me feel so young – you and Patrick."

"Oh, Howard – you ARE young."

"Not compared to you. I love you."

"I love you."

**_Copyright 2005 CAJeannieFan57/Donna Ransdell _**

**Author's Note: **There are four correlations between this story and the private life of actor Bill Daily, who portrayed Howard Borden in **_The Bob Newhart Show_** during the 1970s. Two of them were accidental; the others were planned.

As the story took shape in plans, Howard's genie's name was derived from a place in southeast Asia. "Patna" became "Patty" to Howard. It was not until the story was about 3/4ths written that I remembered that Bill Daily's first wife was Patricia. Whether he called her Patricia, Pat, Tricia, Trish, or Patty is unknown. But the naming of this genie for him was coincidental, not purposeful. When "Patty" gave birth to a son, "Patrick" seemed the logical name – and I realized too, belatedly, that Patrick Daily is Bill's son.

Nicholas Borden was born on November 11th in this story. Purposefully, I gave him Patrick Daily's birthday, in fun – before remembering the Patricia/Patna connection.

The second purposeful correlation was giving Howard Borden a very young genie. Not only did I feel it would suit his character quite well, but Bill Daily's current wife is much younger than he. Why did I choose a 28 year difference? Because that's the number of years difference between Bill and his current wife.

For those who are **_The Bob Newhart Show_** purists, you may object to the fact that in my story, Howard has become a co-pilot. Yes, he was a navigator in the 1970s series. But research shows that navigation has gone the way of computers (as was hinted at in a second season episode, "The Jobless Corps"), and I would assume that a flyer would qualify to do something else if your job becomes completely extinct.

Jeannie purists might wonder who I picture when I write Haji into a story, since the show and the reunion movie used different men to portray Haji. Frankly, I still picture Abraham Sofaer, the original Haji, even though by 1988 he had died of congestive heart failure at the age of 91, and this story starts in 1989 and ends in 1991.

Finally, for those that are reading this story and wonder where the other **_I Dream of Jeannie _**characters come from (Kashi, Tracy, Skylar, Janae, and so forth), this story ties in with the IDOJ fan-fiction series located on The Jeannie Sisters website (see home page).


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